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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. #1 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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AN 

INQUIRY, 

CONCERNING 

THE AUTHOR 

OF THE 

LETTERS OF JUNIUS; 

IN WHICH IT IS PROVED, 

BY INTERNAL, AS WELL AS BY DIRECT AND SATISFAC- 
TORY EVIDENCE, 

THAT THEY WERE WRITTEN BY THE LATE 

RTGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 



BY 

JOHN ROCHE, ESQ. 

*\ HONORARY MEMBER, AND FORMERLY PRESIDENT, OF THE ROYAL PHYSICAL 
SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, &c. 



A mnrtal born, he met the general doom ; 
But left, like Egypt's king?, a lasting tomb ! 

DR. JOHNSON. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED BY WHITTlNGHAM AND ROWLAND, 
Gorwcll Street ,■ 

FOR J. CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET, AND J. CARR, 
50, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



IK 1 3. 



X. 



TO HIS GRACE 

THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, 

Sfc. Sfc. Sfc. 



Not wishing, my Lord, that any thing, 
which I write for the public, should be in- 
debted, for any part of its success, to any 
thing but its own merits, it is not my inten- 
tion, by inscribing the following work to 
your Grace, to shelter it under your pro- 
tection : my object is to express, in as 
public a manner as I can, the high respect, 
which, on many accounts, I entertain for 
your Grace's character; but, particularly, 
on account of that benevolent and pater- 
nal attention to your Irish tenantry, by 
which you have given so worthy an ex- 
ample to others, and which has made your 
Grace's name as a landlord proverbial in 
that country. Junius being a true Whig, 
and as, I think, I have satisfactorily shewn, 



IV DEDICATION. 

an Irishman, there is no person to whom I 
can more properly inscribe an Essay occa- 
sioned by his writings, than to the leader 
of one of the first Whig families of Eng- 
land, particularly when that leader, as far 
as it lies in his power, shews himself well 
disposed to be a father and a friend to the 
ill-treated and worse-governed people of 
Ireland. Besides, my Lord, were these con- 
siderations altogether out of the question, 
I should hope, that a work so intimately 
connected, as the following Inquiry is, 
with the writings of the late Mr. Burke, 
could scarcely prove unacceptable to the 
Head of the House of Cavendish. 

I have the honour to be, 
my Lord, 
Your Grace's most obedient 
and most humble servant,, 

JOHN ROCHE. 

SOUTHAMPTON CRESCENT, 

July 5, 1813. 



AN 

INQUIRY, 



Very few questions of literary history have ever 
excited so much public interest and curiosity, as 
that, which relates to the discovery of the author 
of Junius. It is now pretty nearly half a century 
since this mysterious and able advocate of our 
constitutional rights began to attract the public 
attention, by the dignified boldness, the finished 
elegance, and the spirited patriotism of his poli- 
tical writings : and surely it must be allowed, 
that they ought to be possessed of no ordinary 
share of merit to secure, as they have done 
hitherto, and to command, even at this hour, 
the same unmixed approbation, and to excite as 
much curiosity as to the probable person of their 
author, as they are known to have done during 
the time of their original appearance in the Pub- 
lic Advertiser. That Junius was no common 
man, (»% 6 rv%w ocvr)o> as Longinus said of the 
Legislator of the Jews), has been always ad- 



2 



mitted, even by the most abusive and virulent 
of his opponents. And, though some of them 
have endeavoured to heap almost every possible 
calumny upon his name, I do not recollect, that 
his undoubted talents and general veracity have 
been ever seriously questioned by any persons 
above the rank of low, suborned, illiterate, or 
obscure revilers. I was not therefore sorry to 
find, that the new edition of his writings had 
called forth the powerless virulence of one of 
this class : for it is one of the hereditary privileges 
of genius to excite the applause and the admi- 
ration of the many, as well as the abuse and 
malevolence of a few. And surely it cannot be 
discreditable to Junius, but must rather give 
additional pleasure to his sincere admirers, when 
they find his works, even at this day, possessed 
of sufficient merit to cause the bile of one miser- 
able essayist to overflow. Were it not for the 
memorable genius of Homer, we should never 
have heard of the name of the miserable Zoilus : 
but the worthiness of his labours has secured to 
the father of critics no very enviable kind of im- 
mortality. The Zoilus of Junius, I fear, is not 
very likely to secure even this wretched species 
of fame with posterity. To scribble and to call 
names may help him to put a few pence into his 
pockety or to purge himself of the spleen : but 



the writings of such persons can excite nothing 
but pity, contempt or merriment, in the minds of 
men of sense. They know, that the itch for scrib- 
bling is not a disease easily cured j whilst they 
remember, that ignorance and envy have been 
always found barking at the heels of genius. 

Never since their first appearance has the public 
attention been more fully fixed on that inquiry, 
the object of which is to discover the real author 
of those admirable letters, than it has been since 
the publication of the new and enlarged edition 
by Mr. Woodfall. We know, that it had been 
long anxiously wished for by the learned ; and 
I will confess, that I was one of those who ex- 
pected, for some years, from the family of Mr. 
Woodfall more probable conjectures as to the 
real author, than from any other source. Anxious, 
however, as I was for the new edition, and gra- 
tified by the large portion of new matter which 
it contains, I must own, that the pleasure, which 
I felt on its appearance, was at first considerably 
diminished, when I found, after all the exertions 
of the new editor, that the question concerning 
the real author was still left as much as ever in 
the dark. But, although, a disappointment of 
this kind was very mortifying, I was still much 
pleased with the mode in which the execution 



of the entire work had been conducted by Mr. 
Woodfall. The errors which it contained were 
trifling, and so far it must be highly gratifying to 
the editor to find, that the labour, which he had 
undergone in its execution, had not been exerted 
without success. And, although, in the inquiries 
contained in the preliminary essay, he has not 
succeeded in making it probable, that any of the 
persons, to whom the letters have been attributed, 
was the real author ; still it was some consolation 
to find, that he had laid several new facts, docu- 
ments and circumstances before the public, from 
which, one time or another, some satisfactory in- 
ferences might be deduced. If it was mortifying 
to think, that the landmarks of our knowledge 
on this interesting subject were still left in their 
old sober station; and to find, that no progress had 
been made in this voyage of discovery ; that no 
new island or continent had been touched upon 
in so long and anxious a navigation; it was still 
consoling to reflect, that the wide ocean of dis- 
covery was still lying open before us, however 
agitated or overcast. 

It is now more than thirteen years since I 
first read the letters of Junius ; and, though but 
young at the time, I was so forcibly struck with 
their undoubted merits, that they soon became 



my daily companion : so much so indeed, that 
there was scarcely a part of them, which I could 
not repeat with facility. With all my partiality 
for them, however, at that time, and anxious as 
I must have been to learn something of the 
writer, several years elapsed before I ventured 
to form any opinion concerning the person who 
was the real author. One opinion, indeed, I had 
pretty early formed, namely, that of all the per- 
sons to whom the letters had been attributed, 
Mr. Burke was the only man (were we to judge 
by the merits of the works acknowledged by 
each) whom I did not deem inadequate to the 
performance. But knowing, that the general 
current of opinions ran so forcibly against his 
claims, I had not then the courage to say, 
(though I was inclined to think so) that the 
laurels of Junius ought to adorn that solid and 
imperishable fabric — the monument of Burke. It 
is certain, however, that I was afterwards led to 
adopt and to acknowledge that very heterodox 
opinion: and the following essay will, I hope, 
contribute to shew that the grounds, upon which 
I was induced to do so, were neither frivolous, 
ill-founded, or visionary. 

After all that has been written concerning the 
author of Junius, I must confess, that no publi- 



cation, which I have yet seen on that subject, has 
given any satisfaction to my mind. The first at- 
tempt to discover the author, that came under my 
cognizance, after the publication of the new edi- 
tion, was that of a writer in a late number of the 
Gentleman's Magazine, who has gravely conde- 
scended to inform us, that the letters were written 
by the late Earl of Shelburne, afterwards Marquis 
of Lansdowne. Now, really, though I am as well 
disposed, as any body else, to give to his Lord- 
ship all due praise, for the extensive political 
information and the abilities, which he certainly 
possessed, I see no reason whatever, for suspect- 
ing, even in the most remote degree, that he 
had any pretensions to be reputed the author of 
Junius. The person, who hazarded this conjec- 
ture, ought to know, at least from the contents 
of the new edition, that his Lordship was one of 
the first public characters attacked by Junius, 
and that, too, with no ordinary degree of severity. 
But so great has been the rage for conjecturing 
concerning Junius, that, for my part, I should 
not be at all surprised to hear, that the letters 
were one time very gravely ascribed to our ve- 
nerable monarch *, or to some other member of 

* Since writing the above I have been positively assured, 
that a certain noble person was in the habit of saying at the 
table of a Lady, who has lately made some noise, that the 



the Royal Family ; or at another, to a Grafton, 
or a Mansfield ; or even perhaps to old Noll, or 
to Jerry Dyson. 

There is, as I have already hinted, one insu- 
perable objection to the claims of most of those 
persons, to whom they have been ascribed ; namely, 
that we have no reason (judging from their several 
works) to think any of them equal to the compo- 
sition of the Letters of Junius. This objection, 
however, I am persuaded, will be readily allowed 
to have but little weight, when urged against 
the claims of Mr. Burke 3 as it is unquestionable, 
that his works, taken as a whole, are far superior 
to those of Junius, in point of eloquence, infor- 
mation, and abilities. Were I to detail all my 
reasons for thinking, that these celebrated Letters 
were written by Mr. Burke, and to cite all the 
passages from his writings, and from those of 
Junius, upon which my opinion is in a great 
measure founded, this inquiry would form a 
pretty large volume. But, as my object is not 
to make a book, but to state pretty fully, though 

K was the only person in Britain, who could write like 

Junius, and that he was considered in his own family as the 
author of the Letters. Thus has Junius been classed among 
our Royal and Noble Authors; — a distinction to which he 
would certainly be well entitled, were merit always al- 
lowed to constitute the solid base of true nobility. 



with as much brevity as I can, some of my rea- 
sons for being of this opinion, I mean to confine 
my remarks within such reasonable limits, as the 
nature of a pamphlet will allow. 

A late writer on this subject has taken some 
pains to show, that Mr. Burke was not the author 
of Junius. This opinion he has founded on two 
principal reasons : first, the style of both is dif- 
ferent -, and, secondly, they differ materially in 
opinion, on two or three important topics. I 
never heard the name of Burke mentioned, as 
the probable writer of Junius, without hearing 
somebody present say, that it was impossible, as 
their styles were so different. This opinion, it 
would seem, is a sort of inalienable, hereditary 
property among critics of a certain description. 
It is adopted, in the fullest extent, by the essayist 
to whom I have just alluded ; for he affirms, that 
" Burke could not have written in the style of 
Junius, which was precisely the reverse of his 
own." As I am a friend to candour, I must 
own, that this declaration is candid, and bold 
enough at the least ; and yet I am satisfied, that 
it can be proved, not only that Burke could, 
but, that he actually did often write in the 
manner of Junius, as I shall show from various 
parts of his acknowledged works. The war-cry ? 



.ihc no-popery-cry and the cry about the church 
being in danger, were never more prevalent in 
this country among bigots, zealots, and inter- 
ested persons, than this cry about style has been 
among the minor critics on the subject of Junius. 
This, however, is not a question to be decided 
by ipere clamour, or by the dictates of narrow- 
minded, or prejudiced opinion. It will not 
therefore be improper to remind those who think, 
that he could not write like Junius, that Burke, 
before he was twenty years of age, while in 
Dublin College, was able to imitate the style 
and manner of Dr. Lucas so successfully, in 
a series of patriotic letters, which he published 
in the Dublin newspapers, as to deceive both 
the erities and the public*. And it is, besides, 

" In the year 1749, Lucas, a demagogue apothecary, 
wrote a number of very daring papers against government, 
and acquired as great popularity in Dublin, as Mr. Wilkes 
afterwards did in London. Burke, whose principal atten- 
tion had been directed to more important objects, than the 
Categories of Aristotle, perceived the noxious tendency of 
levelling doctrines. He wrote several essays in the style of 
Lucas, imitating it so completely, as to deceive the public- 
pursuing the principles of Lucas to consequences obvious's 
resulting from them, and, at the same time, shewing their 
absurdity and danger. The first literary effort of his mind 
was an exposure of the absurdity of democratical innovations. 
Tins was the Ticinus of our political Scipio." (Bisset's 
Life of Burke). It is not a little remarkable, that bis first, 
W well as most of his latest political works, were written 
in defence of our establishments, and to repress too daring a 
C 



10 



well known, that his Vindication of Natural 
Society, one of the most admirable counterfeits 
ever given to the public, passed, as he intended 
it to do, for a posthumous work of the celebrated 
Lord Bolingbroke *. 

That he could also write in the manner of 
Junius will not, I think, be denied by good 
judges, when they consider attentively, and com- 

spirit of innovation : but Burke, being a friend to rational 
and practical, not to speculative, or theoretical liberty, was 
at all times equally ready to defend it, whether invaded by 
kingly prerogative, or parliamentary privilege, by the inso- 
lent spirit of aristocratic domination, or the wild and sedi- 
tious turbulence of popular licentiousness. 

* Since writing the above I have met with the following 
character of the Vindication of Natural Society : It is so just 
and so spirited, that I am sure it cannot be disagreeable to 
the reader. " In Burke's imitation of Bolingbroke {the most 
perfect specimen, perhaps, which ever will exist of the art of 
which ive are speaking), we have all the qualities, which 
distinguish the style, or we may, indeed, say the genius, of 
that noble writer, as it were concentrated and brought at 
once before us; so that an ordinary reader, who, in perusing 
his genuine works, merely felt himself dazzled and disap- 
pointed, delighted and wearied he could not tell why, is now 
enabled to form a definite and precise conception of the 
causes of those opposite sensations ; and to trace to the no- 
bleness of the diction and the inaccuracy of the reason- 
ing — the boldness of the propositions and the rashness of the 
inductions — the magnificence of the pretensions and the 
feebleness of the performance, those contradictory judg- 
ments, with the confused result of which he had been per- 
plexed in his study of the original." 



11 

pare with the style of that writer, some of the pas- 
sages quoted from Burke's works in a subsequent 
part of this inquiry. Before I proceed, however, 
to the citation of these, it will not be irrelevant 
to premise one or two observations. 

Few, I am persuaded, will be disposed to con- 
tradict me, when I say, that so great was Mr. 
Burke's original fund of thinking, as well as his 
acknowledged command of language and ele- 
gance of style, that it was altogether unnecessary 
for him to borrow the thoughts of others, or to 
imitate their style or manner of writing, either 
with a view of improving his own, or for the 
purpose of bestowing upon them much addi- 
tional perfection, or decoration. If, therefore., 
we find him often, and obviously, writing in the 
manner, which it has been fashionable among 
some critics to suppose peculiar to Junius, must 
we not naturally conclude, that this mode of 
writing became so familiar to him from habit, 
and from the labour which it cost him to acquire 
it, that he has often slid into it imperceptibly, 
even in those works which he has acknowledged 
as his own ? And we know that Junius bestow- 
ed great labour on the composition of his letters, 
from his own confession, in his reply to Mr 
Home; but more fully from the recent publb 



12 

cation of his private correspondence with Mr, 
Woodfall and Mr. Wilkes. 

The second observation, which I wish to pre- 
mise, is equally clear and indisputable ; namely, 
that the style of this writer, under the various 
other signatures, which he from time to time 
assumed, is frequently as different from that of 
Junius, as the style of Junius is from that of 
Mr. Burke. This, at least, I persuade myself, 
will appear evident to any scholar, who reads the 
miscellaneous letters in the new edition, with as 
much attention and impartiality as I have done. 

It was not until the year 1808 that I began 
to suspect very strongly, that Junius was written 
hy Mr. Burke. Having before that time so fre- 
quently read the letters as to be intimately ac- 
quainted with every part of them, I was readily 
able to recognize any thing like the style, or man- 
ner of Junius, whenever it occurred. Happening, 
in that year, to be in a remote part of the country, 
where I had not many books, I was induced to 
read some of Mr. Burke's works with great at- 
tention, and was not a little surprised to find, in 
various parts of them, passages written in the 
exact style and manner of Junius. Upon making 
this discovery, I was led to read and to examine 



13 



the works of both with greater attention; there- 
suit of which, upon my mind, was as strong a con-; 
viction as can be conveyed to the mind of a scho- 
lar, by that species of evidence, that Mr. Burke 
was the author of Junius. I accordingly avowed 
that opinion at the time, as it has been custo- 
mary with me to do ever since, — not indeed as 
unquestionable, but as, in the highest degree, 
probable. 

Such being my opinion upon the subject, it 
was natural for me to be anxious for the publi- 
cation of the edition so long expected from Mr. 
Woodfall ; and, accordingly, I took it up, shortly 
after its appearance, with a view of ascertaining, 
whether the new matter, which it contained, 
was likely to throw any additional light upon 
the subject, so as either to confirm me in the 
opinion which I had been induced to adopt, or 
to lead me to reject it, as ill-founded or impro- 
bable. I had not, however, been long engaged 
in this research, when I found my opinion more 
strongly confirmed, than it was possible for me 
to have expected. When the reader hears them, 
he will be able to judge of the weight of my 
reasons. But as the alleged difference of his 
style is the greatest argument again/sj Mr. 



14 

Burke's claims, to that point I shall first direct 
my attention. 

With this view I may be permitted to put one 
question, not, indeed, to those critics, who are 
confident that Mr. Burke could not write in the 
style of Junius, but to scholars of taste and 
discernment, who know how to form a proper 
estimate of those peculiarities, which are deemed 
to constitute identity or diversity of style ; and 
to whom alone I woidd be understood to address my- 
self in most parts of this inquiry*. The question, 
and a simple one, is, whether they can, or indeed, 
whether any body can point out, in all the writ- 
ings of Junius, a single passage, which has more 
of the peculiarities of his- manner and style, than 
the following extract taken from the works of 
Mr. Burke ? " Nobody, I believe, will consider it 
merely as the language of spleen, or disappoint- 
ment, if I say, that there is something parti- 



* Those readers, who take up a book merely for amuse- 
ment, or for the equally important purpose of killing time, 
must not blame me, if they are disappointed, as I have given 
them fair warning. In this long Inquiry I do not once draw 
upon the reader's fancy or my own ; my object being to 
satisfy the judgment, not to please the imagination. That, 
and that only, being my object, if I do not succeed so far, I 
lose my aim. 



L5 



cularly alarming in the present conjuncture. 
There is hardly a man in or out of power, who 
holds any other language. That government is 
at once dreaded and contemned ; that the laws 
are despoiled of all their respected and salutary 
terrors ; that their inaction is a subject of ridi- 
cule, and their exertion of abhorrence ; that 
rank, and office, and title, and all the solemn 
plausibilities of the world have lost their reve- 
rence and effect ; that our foreign politics are as 
much deranged as our domestic economy ; that 
our dependencies are slackened in their affection 
and loosened from their obedience ; that we 
know neither how to yield, nor how to enforce - } 
that hardly any thing above or below, abroad or 
at home, is sound and entire; but that discon- 
nection and confusion in office, in parties, in 
families, in parliament, in the nation, prevail 
beyond the disorders of any former time : — 
These are facts universally admitted and lament- 
ed." (Thoughts on the Cause of the present 
Discontents.) 

The latter part also of the following extract 
from the same tract, where he is speaking of the 
House of Commons, is very like the style of 
Junius: — " The virtue, spirit, and essence of 
a House of Commons consist in its being the 



16 



express image of the feelings of the nation. It 
was not instituted to be a controul upon the 
people, as of late it has been taught by a doctrine 
of the most pernicious tendency : it was de- 
signed as a controul for the people*." *** "A 
vigilant and jealous eye over executory and ju- 
dicial magistracy ; an anxious care of public 
money ; an openness approaching towards fa- 
cility to public complaint ; these seem to be the 
true characteristics of an House of Commons f. 
But an addressing House of Commons, and a 
petitioning nation; an House of Commons full 
of confidence, when the nation is plunged in 
despair ; in the utmost harmony with ministers, 
whom the people regard with the utmost abhor- 
rence ; who vote thanks when the public opinion 
calls upon them for impeachments ; who are 
eager to grant, when the general voice demands 
account ; who, in all disputes, between the people 

* Junius says, in the same spirit: — " The House of Com- 
mons are only interpreters, whose duty it is to convey the 
sense of the people faithfully to the crown. If the interpre- 
tation be false, or imperfect, the constituent powers are called 
upon to deliver their own sentiments." — (Vol. ii. p. 134). 

f " The constitutional duties of the House of Commons," 
says Junius, " are not very complicated, or mysterious: they 
are to propose or assent to wholesome laws for the benefit of 
the nation ; they are to grant the necessary aids to the king ; 
to petition for the redress of grievances, and prosecute treason, 
or high crimes against the state." (Vol. ii. p. 213). 



17 

and administration, presume against the people ; 
who punish their disorders, but refuse even to 
inquire into the provocations to them ; this is 
an unnatural, a monstrous state of things in this 
constitution. Such an assembly may be a great, 
wise, awful senate ; but it is not, to any po- 
pular purpose, an House of Commons." 

Even the first paragraph of this able perform- 
ance has much of the manner of Junius : — " It is 
an undertaking of some degree of delicac}' to ex- 
amine into the cause of public disorders. If a 
man happens not to succeed in such an inquiry » 
he will be thought weak and visionary ; if he 
touches the true grievance, there is a danger, 
that he may come near to persons of weight and 
consequence, who will rather be exasperated at 
the discovery of their errors, than thankful for 
the occasion of correcting them. If he should 
be obliged to blame the favourites of the 
people, he will be considered as the tool of 
power ; if he censures those in power, he will 
be looked on as an instrument of faction. But 
in all exertions of duty something is to be 
hazarded. In cases of tumult and disorder, our 
law has invested every man, in some sort, with 
the authority of a magistrate. When the affairs of 
the nation are distracted, private people are, by 



18 



the spirit of that law, justified in stepping a 
little out of their ordinary sphere. They enjoy 
a privilege of somewhat more dignity and effect, 
than that of idle lamentation over the calamities 
of their country. They may look into them 
narrowly ; they may reason upon them liberally ; 
and, if they should be so fortunate as to discover 
the true source of the mischief, and to suggest 
any probable method of removing it, though 
they may displease the rulers for the day, they 
are certainly of service to the cause of govern- 
ment." — *** — " Nations are governed by the 
same methods, and on the same principles, by 
which an individual, without authority, is often 
able to govern those, who are his equals, or his 
superiors ; by a knowledge of their temper, and 
a judicious management of it ; I mean, when- 
ever public affairs are steadily and quietly con- 
ducted ; not when government is nothing but a 
continued scuffle between the magistrate and 
the multitude ; in which, sometimes the one and 
sometimes the other is uppermost ; in which 
they alternately yield and prevail, in a series of 
contemptible victories and scandalous submis- 
sions. The temper of the people, amongst 
whom he presides, ought therefore to be the 
first study of a statesman ; and the knowledge 
of this temper it is by no means impossible for 



him to attain, if he has not an interest in being 
ignorant of what it is his duty to learn." A little 
farther on he remarks: — "This state of things 
is the more extraordinary, because the great 
parties which formerly divided and agitated the 
kingdom, are known to be, in a manner, entirely 
dissolved. No great external calamity has visited 
the nation ; no pestilence or famine. We do 
not labour at present under any scheme of taxa- 
tion new or oppressive, in the quantity, or in 
the mode. Nor are we engaged in unsuccessful 
war; in which, our misfortunes might easily 
pervert our judgment ; and our minds, sore from 
the loss of national glory, might feel every blow 
of fortune as a crime in government." 

Let us now turn from these to one or two 
extracts from Junius. Alluding to the conduct of 
the ministry, with respect to Falkland Islands* 
he says : — " Violence and oppression at home 
can only be supported by treachery and submis- 
sion abroad. When the civil rights of the people 
are daringly invaded on one side, what have 
we to expect, but that their political rights 
should be deserted and betrayed, in the same 
proportion, on the other ? The plan of domestic 
policy, which has been invariably pursued from 
the moment of his present Majesty's accession* 



20 

engrosses all the attention of his servants. They 
know, that the security of their places depends 
upon their maintaining, at any hazard, the secret 
system of the closet. A foreign war might em- 
barrass, an unfavourable event might ruin the 
minister, and defeat the deep-laid scheme of 
policy, to which he and his associates owe their 
employments. Rather than suffer the execution 
of that scheme to be delayed, or interrupted, 
the king has been advised to make a public sur- 
render, a solemn sacrifice, in the face of all 
Europe, not only of the interests of his subjects, 
but of his own personal reputation, and of the 
dignity of that crown which his predecessors have 
worn with honour." (See Junius, Let. XLIL 
Jan. 30, 1771).JtrT }' 

Mr. Burke, touching on the same topics, has 
the following observations : — " The interior mi- 
nistry are sensible, that war is a situation zvhich 
sets in its full light the value of the hearts of the 
people j and they well know, that the beginning of 
the importance of the people must be the end of 
theirs. For this reason they discover, upon all 
occasions, the utmost fear of every thing, which, 
by possibility, may lead to such an event. I do 
not mean, that they manifest any of that pious 
fear, which is backward to commit the safety of 



21 



the country to the dubious experiment of war. 
Such a fear, being the tender sensation of virtue, 
excited, as it is regulated, by reason, frequently 
shows itself in a seasonable boldness, which keeps 
danger at a distance, by seeming to despise it. 
Their fear betrays to the first glance of the eye, 
its true cause and its real object. Foreign 
powers, confident in the knowledge of their cha- 
racter, have not scrupled to violate the most solemn 
treaties; and, in defiance of them, to make con- 
quests in the midst of a general peace, and in the 
heart of Europe. Such was the conquest of 
Corsica, by the professed enemies of the freedom 
of mankind, in defiance of those, who were for- 
merly its professed defenders. We have had 
just claims upon the same powers ; rights which 
ought to have been sacred to them, as well as 
to us, as they had their origin in our lenity and 
generosity towards France and Spain, in the 
day of their great humiliation — Such I call the 
ransom of Manilla, and the demand on France 
for the East India prisoners. But these powers 
put a just confidence in their resource of the 
Double Cabinet. These demands, (one of them 
at least) are hastening fast towards an acquittal 
by prescription. Oblivion begins to spread her 
cobwebs over all our spirited remonstrances. 
Some of the most valuable branches of our 



22 



trade are also on the point of perishing from the 
same cause. I do not mean those branches, 
which bear without the hand of the vine-dresser 5 
I mean those, which the policy of treaties had 
formerly secured to us; I mean the trade of 
Portugal, the loss of which, and the power of 
the Cabal, have one and the same era." 

There are many other passages in the tract 
" On the Cause of the present Discontents" which 
are similar to the above extract from Junius, 
not only in the manner, but also in their con- 
tents. As most of them, however, are too long 
for transcription, I must refer the reader gene- 
rally to that tract, many parts of which may, 
indeed, be well considered as a very good ge- 
neral commentary upon the contents of the 
passage just quoted from Junius. This, I think, 
will readily appear to any body who reads 
Burke's account of the origin, constitution, and 
policy of the Double Cabinet. 

In pourtraying the designs of that cabinet, 
and its plans to get rid of Mr. Pitt and the 
Whig interest, he remarks : — " The power of 
that gentleman was vast indeed, and merited ; 
but it was in a great degree personal, and there- 
fore transient. Theirs was rooted in the country. 



23 

For, with a good deal less of popularity, they 
possessed a far more natural and fixed influence. 
Long possession of government ; vast property ; 
obligations of favours given and received; con- 
nection of office ; ties of blood, of alliance, of 
friendship, (things at that time supposed of 
some force) ; the name of Whig dear to the 
majority of the people ; the zeal early begun 
and steadily continued to the Royal Family ; all 
these together formed a body of power in the 
nation, which zvas criminal and devoted.'" In a 
subsequent paragraph he writes as follows : — 
" Thus for the time were pulled down, in the 
persons of the Whig leaders and of Mr. Pitt, 
(in spite of the services of the one at the acces- 
sion of the Royal Family, and the recent services 
of the other in the war), the two only securities 
for the importance of the people ; power arising 
from popularity, and power arising from con- 
nection. Here and there, indeed, a few indi- 
viduals were left standing, who gave security for 
their total estrangement from the odious principles 
of party connection and personal attachment ; 
and it must be confessed, that most of them 
have religiously kept their faith. Such a change, 
however, could not be made without a mighty 
shock to government." 



A little before he says, (speaking of the 
Double Cabinet) — " It happened very favour- 
ably for the new system, that, under a forced 
coalition, there rankled an incurable alienation 
and disgust between the parties which composed 
the administration. Mr. Pitt was first attacked. 
Not satisfied with j^emoving him from power, they 
endeavoured, by various artifices, to ruin his cha- 
racter. The other party, not perceiving that their 
own fall was prepared by his, and involved in it, 
seemed rather pleased to get rid of so oppressive 
a support." Again, alluding to the plans of this 
cabal, he remarks, that in order " to recommend 
this system to the people, a perspective view of 
the court, gorgeously painted, and finely illumi- 
nated from within, was exhibited to the gaping 
multitude. Party was to be totally done away, 
with all its evil works*. Corruption was to be 

* Junius often touches upon this project of the court for 
the abolition of party. Thus even in his first letter ; (see vol. 
i. p. 50.) " The idea of uniting all parties, of trying all cha- 
racters, and of distributing the offices of state by rotation, 
was g'-acious and benevolent to an extreme, though it has not 
yet produced the many salutary effects which were intended 
by it. To say nothing of the wisdom of such a plan, it un- 
doubtedly arose from an unbounded goodness of heart, in 
which folly had no share." And again — " He (the King) 
found this country in that state of perfect union and happi- 
ness, which good government naturally produces, and which 
a bad one has destroyed. He promised to abolish all dis- 
tinctions of party, and kept his word by declaring Lord 



*6 

cast down from court, as Ate was from heaven. 
Power was to be thence-forward the chosen resi- 
dence of public spirit ; and no one was to be 
supposed under any sinister influence, except 
those who had the misfortune to be in disgrace 
at court, which was to stand in lieu of all vices 
and all corruptions." 

In another part of this unrivalled tract, 
through the whole of which we trace the opinions, 
the manner, the vigour, and the spirit of Junius, 
we find him remarking, that " the discretionary 
power of the crown, in the formation of ministry, 
abused by bad or weak men, has given rise to a 
system, which, without directly violating the letter 
of any law, ojyerates against the spirit of the 
whole constitution. A plan of favouritism for 
our executory government is essentially at vari- 
ance with the plan of our Legislature. One 
great end undoubtedly of a mixed government 



Bute his favourite and minister, by proscribing the whole 
Whig interest of England, and filling every place of trust 
and profit under his government with professed Tories, no- 
torious Jacobites, and Scotchmen of all denominations. He 
abolished no distinctions but those which are essential to the 
safety of the constitution." (Vol. iii. p. 'M\). These are 
exactly in the same spirit with some of the Inst quoted ex- 
tracts from Mr. Burke, where he mentions the project for 
abolishing party distinctions, and for getting rid of the 
Whigs. 



26 



J ike ours, composed of monarchy, and of con- 
trouls on the part of the higher people and the 
lower, is, that the Prince shall not be able to 
violate the laws. This is useful, indeed, and 
fundamental. But this, even, at first view, 
is no more than a negative advantage, an armour 
merely defensive. It is therefore next in order 
and eofual in importance, that the discretionary 
powers, which are necessarily vested in the Mo- 
narch, whether for the execution of the laws, or 
for the nomination to magistracy and office, or 
for conducting the affairs of peace and war, or 
for ordering the revenue, should all be exercised 
upon public principles and national grounds, and 
not on the likings or prejudices, the intrigues, 
or policies of a court." " Again ; when, there- 
fore, the abettors of the new system tell us, that, 
between them and their opposers, there is nothing 
but a struggle for power, and that, therefore, 
we are no ways concerned in it -, we must tell 
those, who have the impudence to insult us in 
this manner, that of all things we ought to be 
the most concerned, who and what sort of men 
they are that hold the trust of every thing that 
is dear to us. Nothing can render this a point 
of indifference to the nation, but what must 
either render us totally desperate, or soothe us 
into the security of idiots. We must soften into 



27 

a credulity below the milkiness of infancy to think 
all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a 
malignity, truly diabolical, to believe all the world 
to be equally wicked and corrupt. Men are in 
public life, as in private, some good, some evil. 
The elevation of the one and the depression of the 
other, are the first objects of all true policy." ***' 
" Every good political institution must have a 
preventive operation, as well as a remedial. It 
ought to have a natural tendency to exclude bad 
men from government, and not to trust for the 
safety of the state to subsequent punishment 
alone; punishment, which has ever been tardy 
and uncertain, and ivhich, when power is suffered 
in bad hands, may chance to fall rather on the 
injured, than the criminal." 

In allusion to the accounts given by the cabal, 
or double cabinet, of the discontents of the 
people and their causes, he says, " If the wealth 
of the nation be the cause of its turbulence, I 
imagine it is not proposed to introduce poverty, 
as a constable to keep the peace. If our domi- 
nions abroad are the roots, which feed all this 
rank luxuriance of sedition, it is not intended to 
cut them off in order to famish the fruit. If our 
liberty has enfeebled the executive power, there 



28 

is no design, I hope, to call in the aid of des- 
potism to fill up the deficiencies of the law." 
To these extracts may be added, from the same 
pamphlet, part of his character of George II. 
" In times full of doubt and danger to his person 
and family, George II. maintained the dignity 
of his crown connected with the liberty of his 
people, not only unimpaired, but improved, for 
the space of thirty-three years. He overcame a 
dangerous rebellion, abetted by foreign force, 
and raging in the heart of his kingdoms ; and 
thereby destroyed the seeds of all future rebellion 
that could arise upon the same principle. He 
carried the glory, the power, the commerce of 
England to an height, unknown even to this 
renowned nation in the times of its greatest 
prosperity ; and he left his succession resting on 
the true, and only true, foundations of all national 
and all regal greatness, affection at home, reputa- 
tion abioad, trust in allies, terror in rival ?ia- 
tions*.". 

Through all the writings of Junius, now col- 
lected in the new edition, whatever be the sig- 

* The same opinions are maintained by Junius in all parts 
of his writings. Some of the passages will be noticed in a 
subsequent part of this inquiry. 



29 

nature, which he assumes, we find a variety of 
passages, written in the same spirit with those 
just quoted from Mr. Burke. Even in his first 
letter, under the signature of Junius, we find him 
remarking in the same strain : " The ruin, or 
prosperity of a state depends so much upon the 
administration of its government, that, to be ac- 
quainted with the merit of a ministry, we need 
only observe the condition of the people. If we 
see tliem obedient to the laws, prosperous in their 
industry, united at home, and respected abroad, 
we may reasonably presume, that their affairs are 
conducted by men of experience, abilities, and 
virtue. If, on the contrary, ice see an universal 
spirit of distrust and dissatisfaction, a rapid decay 
of trade, dissensions in all parts of the empire, 
and a total loss of respect in the eyes of foreign 
powers, we may pronounce, without hesitation, 
that the government of that country is weak, dis- 
tracted and corrupt. The multitude in all coun- 
tries are patient to a certain point. Ill usage 
may rouse their indignation, and hurry them into 
excesses i but the original fault is in the govern- 
ment. Perhaps there never was an instance of a 
change in the circumstances and temper of a 
whole nation, so sudden and extraordinary, as 
that which the misconduct of ministers has, within 



30 



these very few years, produced in Great Britain?' 
*** " Yet there is no extremity of distress, 
which of itself ought to reduce a great nation to 
despair. It is not the disorder ', but the physician; 
it is not a casual concurrence of calamitous cir- 
cumstances, it is the pernicious hand of govern- 
ment, which alone can make a whole people des- 
perate." And to the same effect, in an earlier 
part .of the same letter: " While the national 
honour is firmly maintained abroad, and while 
justice is impartially administered at home, the 
obedience of the subject will be voluntary, cheer- 
ful, and, I might almost say, unlimited." In his 
first letter to Sir William Draper, he also remarks: 
" A little calm reflection might have shown you, 
that national calamities do not arise from the de- 
scription, hut from the real character and conduct 
of ministers" (Vol. i. p. 71.) It is unnecessary 
to quote more from Junius on this subject : but 
it will be proper to lay before the reader some of 
Mr. Burke's opinions on the same points. The 
coincidence, in my mind, is clear and striking. 

In his Thoughts on the Cause of the present 
Discontents, he says, " I am not one of those 
who think, that the people are never in the 
wrong. They have been so frequently and out- 



SI 

rageously, both in other countries and in this. 
But I do say, that in all disputes between them 
and their riders, the presumption is at least upon 
a par in favour of the people. Experience may, 
perhaps, justify me in going farther. Where 
popular discontents have been very prevalent, it 
may well be affirmed and supported, that there 
lias been generally something found amiss in the 
constitution, or in the conduct of the govern- 
ment. The people have no interest in disorder. 
When they do xvrong, it is their error and not 
their crime. But, with the governing part of the 
stale, it is far otherwise. They may certainly 
act ill by design, as well as by mistake." *** 
" What he says of revolutions is equally true 
of all great disturbances. If this presumption 
in favour of the subjects against the trustees 
of power be not the more probable, I am 
sure it is the more comfortable speculation ; 
because it is more easy to change an administra- 
tion, than to reform a people " This seems to 
have been a favourite doctrine with Mr. Burke, 
as it occurs pretty frequently in his writings : 
thus he says in his letter to the sheriffs of Bristol, 
(see works, vol. iii. p. 170.) "They have been 
told, that their dissent from violent measures is 
an encouragement to rebellion. Men of great 



32 



presumption and little knowledge will hold a 
language, which is contradicted by the whole 
course of history. General rebellions and revolts 
of an whole people never were encouraged, now, or 
at any time. They are always provoked." It is 
not a little singular, that Lord Mansfield is 
known to have maintained a similar doctrine. 
" The people," says he, " are almost always in 
the right. The great may sometimes be in the 
wrong ; but the body of the people are always 
in the right." The following extract from a 
speech, which Mr. Burke made on the 27th of 
Nov. 1770, is still more in point : and, in truth, 
is the same with the above passage from Junius, 
only in different words. " What is the cause of 
this general aversion to law, this universal con- 
spiracy against government ? It does not arise 
from the natural depravity of the people, nor from 
the accidental misbehaviour of our courts of law. 
The whole is chargeable upon administration. 
The ministers are the general criminals. It is 
their malversation and unconstitutional encroach- 
ments that have roused up in the nation this spirit 
of opposition, which tramples under foot all law, 
order, and decorum. Till they are removed and 
punished the kingdom zvill be a scene of anarchy 
and confusion?' 



3'J 

Mr. Burke, in his memorial to the king, has 
again the same doctrine, which clearly shows, 
that it was one of his favourite opinions. " We 
deplore, along with your majesty, the distractions 
and disorders, which prevail in your empire. 
But we are convinced, that the disorders of the 
people, in the present time, are owing to the usual 
and natural cause of such disordej % s at all times — 
the misconduct of the government j that they are 
owing to plans laid in error, pursued zvith obsti- 
nacy, and conducted without wisdom" If the 
reader is not convinced, by a mere comparison 
of these passages from the works of Burke and of 
Junius, that they are the production of the same 
author, he is not likely to be convinced by any 
comments that can be made on the subject. 
Nor, indeed, is it my intention to encumber a 
point, already sufficiently clear, by the addition 
of any unnecessary argument or illustration. 

To show Mr. Burke's partiality for the 
people about the period in question, I may 
add the following extracts. In a speech, on 
the affairs of Canada in 1774, he said, " If 
the noblesse were the only persons, as they 
appeared to be by the evidence at the bar, 
who were against the English laws, he would 



34 



sacrifice them and all the noblesse of England 
and other countries* , but he would make the 
people happy'' 

This last doctrine occurs frequently in his 

* Mr. Wilkes having published some spirited remarks on 
the selfish and time-serving conduct of what he called great 
men (meaning the higher orders), was complimented on it by 
Junius, in one of his private letters. " Nothing," says he, 
" can be more true, than what you say about great men. 
They are, indeed, a worthless pitiful race." In another of his 
letters to Wilkes he has these words : " At the same time, 
that I think it good policy to pay those complimenls to Lord 
Chatham, which, in truth, he has nobly deserved, I should 
be glad to mortify those contemptible creatures , who call them- 
selves noblemen, whose worthless importance depends entirely upon 
their influence over boroughs, which cannot be safely diminished, 
but by increasing the power of the counties at large." Burke 
was not a more profound admirer of the great men (or the 
nobility), not conceiving them to be very eminent either for 
talents or virtue. His remark, when speaking, one day, on 
the debauchery of high life, and its evil consequences, is well 
known: " It is no wonder," said he, " that the issue of the 
marriage bed should be puny and degenerate, when children 
are formed out of the rinsing of bottles." Mr. Burke, it is 
true, was a friend to aristocracy; not to that of property, 
however, but to an aristocracy of property, united to an 
aristocracy of talents and virtue. In the following extract, 
from his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, 
he agrees exactly with Junius. " He is but a poor observer, 
who has not seen, that the generality of pee rs, far from sup- 
porting themselves in a state of independent greatness, are but too 
apt to fall into an oblivion of their proper dignity, and to run 
headlong into an abject servitude. Would to God it were true, 
that the fault of our peers were too much spirit \" 



35 



writings. " The question with me is, not whether 
you have a right to render your people miserable, 
but whether it is not your interest to make them 
happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I may 
do, but what humanity, reason, and justice, tell 
me I ought to do." (Vol. iii. p. 75.) And again, 
"I had, indeed, very earnest wishes to keep the 
whole bodv of this authority perfect and entire 
as I found it, and to keep it so, not for our ad- 
vantage solely ; but principally for the sake of 
those, on whose account all just authority exists; 
I mean the people to be governed." (Ibid. p. 178.) 
In their partiality for the people, both Burke and 
Junius carry this doctrine even still further. " I 
never knew a writer on the theory of government 
(says Burke) so partial to authority, as not to 
allow, that the hostile mind of the riders to their 
people did fully justify a change of government ; 
nor can any reason whatever be given, why one 
people should voluntarily yield any degree of pre- 
eminence to another, but on a supposition of 
great affection and benevolence towards them." 
(Vol. iii. p. 163.) "If he loves his people (says 
Junius speaking of the King) he will dissolve a 
parliament, which they can never confide in, or 
respect. If he has any regard for his own honour, 
he will disdain to be any longer connected with 



36 



such abandoned prostitution. But, if it were 
conceivable, that a king of this country had lost 
all personal honour, and all concern for the wel- 
fare of his subjects, I confess, Sir, I should be con- 
tented to renounce the forms of the constitution 
once more, if there were no other way to obtain 
substantial justice for the people." (Vol. ii. p. 220.) 
The following short passage in the Dedication of 
Junius contains the same doctrine with that 
quoted above from the works of Mr. Burke, 
(Vol. iii. p. 178.) " The power of king, lords, and 
commons, is not an arbitrary power. They are 
the trustees, not the owners of the estate. The fee 
simple is in us. They cannot alienate, they can- 
not waste." And to the same purport, Mr. Burke, 
in his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Dis- 
contents, says, " The king is the representative of 
the people; so are the lords; so are the judges. 
They are all trustees for the people, as well as the 
commons ; because no power is given for the sole 
sake of the holder; and, although government 
certainly is an institution of divine authority, yet 
its forms, and the persons, who administer it, all 
originate from the people." 

That Junius also was fond of the mob, or 
people, is clear even from his private letters to 



37 

Mr. Wilkes : " Depend upon it (says he to 
him on the 23d of Sept. 1771), the perpetual 
union of Wilkes and mob does you no service. 
Not but that I love and esteem the mob. It is 
your interest to keep up dignity and gravity 
besides. I would not make myself cheap by 
walking the streets so much as you do. Verbum 
sat." 

Nor are those already mentioned the only 
instances in which we find Burke agreeing with 
Junius, both in style and in sentiment. There 
are no parts of his writings almost, from which 
instances of a similar nature might not be se- 
lected, though they occur more frequently in his 
early speeches and tracts. Many might be cited 
from his Observations on a pamphlet, entitled, 
The present State of the Nation. The picture, 
which he gives of this tract, in his Observatio?is, 
is much in the manner of Junius. When con- 
troverting the opinions of the writer on the sub- 
ject of the war, which Mr. Burke maintains, in 
opposition to him, to have been most prosperous, 
and attended with an immense increase of trade 
and augmentation of revenue, he says, that the 
disappointments, defeats, distresses, and irre- 
parable losses of the enemy left them entirely at 
our mercy, in the opinion of the whole world, 



3S 

" except the friends of the then ministry, who 
wept for our victories, and were in haste to get 
rid of the burden of our conquests." He ascribes 
the gloomy misrepresentation given by his 
opponent of the state of the country to the 
circumstance of his being out of office. " The 
same sun, which gilds all nature, and exhilarates 
the whole creation, does not shine upon disap- 
pointed ambition. It is something that rays 
out of darkness, and inspires nothing but gloom 
and melancholy. Men in this deplorable state 
of mind, find a comfort in spreading the con- 
tagion of their spleen. They find an advantage 
too i for it is a general popular error to imagine, 
the loudest complainers for the public to be the 
most anxious for its welfare. If such persons 
can answer the end of relief and profit to them- 
selves, they are apt to be careless enough about 
either the means or the consequences." And in 
another part of the same tract, he says, that 
" His plan of reform in the internal representa- 
tion of Great Britain, by enlarging the number 
of constituents ; and his scheme of an addition 
to our representatives, by new American mem- 
bers of parliament, are no less absurd. Much 
extravagance appears without any fancy, and 
the judgment is shocked, without any thing to 
refresh the imagination." 



39 

The very beautiful passage too in this tract, 
in which he pourtrays the gradations of political 
profligacy, with so much eloquence and success, 
may be cited as affording specimens of the man- 
ner of Junius. As it is, however, too long, I 
shall confine myself to a few sentences. " I be- 
lieve the instances are exceedingly rare of men's 
immediately passing over a clear marked line 
of virtue into declared vice and corruption." *** 
" Gradually they are habituated to other com- 
pany ; and a change in their habitudes soon makes 
a way for a change in their opinions. Certain per- 
sons are no longer so frightful, when they come to 
be blown and to be serviceable. As to their old 
friends, the transition is easy from friendship to 
civility j f ?o?n civility to e7nnity : few are the steps 
from dereliction to persecutio7i." *** "Every 
former professio7i of public spirit is C07isidered as 
a debauch of youth; or, at best, as a visio7iary 
scheme of wiattai7iable perfection. The very idea 
of consiste7icy is exploded. The convenience of the 
busi7icss of the day is to furnish the principle for 
doing it." * * * " Flattering themselves that their 
power is become necessary to the support of all 
order and government, every thing which tends 
to the support of that power is sanctified." *** 
" They are delivered up into the hands of those 
who feel neither respect for their persons, 7ior gra- 



40 



titude for their favours." * * * "At length they 
are cast off with scorn; they are turned out, 
emptied of all natural character, of all intrinsic 
worth, of all essential dignity, and deprived of 
every consolation of friendship. Having rendered 
all retreat to old principles ridiculous, and to old 
regards impracticable ; not being able to counter- 
feit pleasure, or to discharge discontent; nothing 
being sincere or right, or balanced in their 
minds, it is more than a chance that, in the 
delirium of the last stage of their distempered 
power, they make an insane political testame?it, 
by ivhich they throw all their remaining weight 
and consequence into the scale of their declared 
enemies." 

In a speech on American affairs, which he 
made on the 9th of May, 1770, and in which he 
advocated several resolutions for censuring all 
the measures lately pursued with respect to 
America, and contended that every step taken 
by the ministry had terminated in exciting ab- 
horrence, or contempt, he said : " Thus the ma- 
lignity of your will is abhorred; the debility of 
your power is contemned; and parliament, which 
you have persuaded to sanction your follies, is ex- 
posed to dishonour." When a motion was made 
on the 3d of February, 1769> for the expulsion 



41 

of Mr. Wilkes, Mr. Burke, in his speech, called 
the proposed vote of expulsion — " the fifth act of 
a tragi-comedy, performed by his Majesty's ser- 
vants, for the benefit of Mr. JVilkes, and at the 
expense of the constitution." 

Those who remember the beautiful passage, in 
which Junius describes the declining patriotism 
of Mr. Home, will probably be disposed to think, 
that the following has some resemblance to it. 
It is that, in which Burke, alluding to the rising 
genius of Charles Townshend, at a time when 
the talents of Lord Chatham were on the decline, 
said, " Before this splendid orb was entirely set, 
and while the western horizon was in a blaze 
with his descending glory, on the opposite quar- 
ter of the heavens arose another luminary, and, 
for his hour, became lord of the ascendant." 

When Mr. Burke and some of his friends, at 
the end of the year 1776, partially seceded from 
parliament, he drew up an address in justifica- 
tion of the measure, with a view of having it 
presented to the King. In this I find several 
passages which resemble Junius in style, as well 
as in opinion. The entire address is, indeed, 
written with uncommon spirit and ability. It 
appears to me to have been greatly laboured; 
o 



42 



and, on that account, resembles the nervous con- 
centrated manner of Junius more than the pro- 
fuse expansion of Mr. Burke. " A situation 
without example necessitates a conduct without 
precedent." ***. We deplore, along with your 
Majesty, the distractions and disorders which 
prevail in your empire. But, we are convinced, 
that the disorders of the people, in the present 
time, are owing to the usual and natural cause of 
such disorders at all times. The misconduct of 
the government ; that they are owing to plans laid 
in error, pursued with obstinacy, and conduct- 
ed zvithout wisdom" Of the cause of the dis- 
orders in America, he says, "That grievance 
is as simple in its nature, and as level to the 
most ordinary understanding, as it is power- 
ful in affecting to the most languid passions. It 
is an attempt made to dispose of the whole pro- 
perty of a whole people without their consent." 
In allusion to the disturbances he goes on to re- 
mark, that " This sense has been declared by the 
unanimous voice of all their assemblies ; each 
assembly also perfectly unanimous within itself: 
it has been declared as fully by the actual voice 
of the people without, these assemblies, as by the 
constructive voice within them ; as well by those 
who addressed, as by those who remonstrated ; 
and it is as much the avowed sense of those 



4S 



who have risked their all rather than take up 
arms against your Majesty's forces, as of those 
who have run the same risk to oppose them. 
The only difference among them is, not on the 
grievance, but on the mode of redress; and we 
are sorry to say, that they who have conceived 
hopes from the placability of those ministers, that 
influence the public councils of this kingdom, 
disappear in the multitude, who conceive that pas- 
sive compliance only confirms and emboldens op- 
pression. The sense of a whole people, most gra- 
cious Sovereign, ought never to be contemned by 
zvise and beneficent riders* whatever may be the 

* On the point, that the sense and feelings of their sub- 
jects are not to be contemned by wise rulers, Junius coin- 
cides with Mr. Burke. "Whatever style of contempt may 
be adopted by ministers, or parliaments, no man sincerely des- 
pises the voice of the English nation. The House of Commons 
are only interpreters, whose duty it is to convey the sense of 
the people faithfully to the crown. If the interpretation be 
false, or imperfect, the constituent powers are called upon to 
deliver their own sentiments. Their speech is rude, but in- 
telligible; their gestures fierce, but full of explanation." 
(Vol. ii. p. 134.) "Sir William Draper does himself but lit- 
tle honour in opposing the general sense of his country. The 
people are seldom wrong in their opinions, in their sentiments they 
are never mistaken." (Ibid. p. 17.) "His Majesty will find at 
last, that this is the sense of his people; and, that it is not 
his interest to support either ministry or parliament, at the 
hazard of a breach with the collective body of his subjects." 
(Vol. ii. p. 122.) To these I may be permitted to add the 
following extracts: " For as the Sabbath, (though of divine 
institution) was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, go- 



abstract claims, or even rights of the supreme 
power. We have been too early instructed, and 

vernment, which can claim no higher origin or authority, in 
its exercise, at least, ought to conform to the exigencies of the 
time, and the temper and character of the people, with whom it 
is concerned; and not always to attempt violently to bend the 
people to their theories of subjection. The bulk of mankind, on 
their part, are not excessively curious concerning any theories, 
whilst they are really happy; and one sure symptom of an 
ill-conducted state is the propensity of the people to resort 
to them." (Burke's Works, vol. iii. p. 186.) I find the follow- 
ing remark in his speech on American taxation : " It is im- 
possible to answer for bodies of men. But I am sure the natu- 
ral effect of fidelity, clemency, kindness in governors, is peace, 
good-will, order, and esteem, on the part of the governed." 
And, in the same speech, " After this experience, nobody 
shall persuade me, when an whole people are concerned, 
that acts of lenity are not means of conciliation." The fol- 
lowing extract is taken from a letter addressed to the gentle- 
men of Buckinghamshire, on the subject of parliamentary 
reform : " I most heartily wish, that the deliberative sense of 
the kingdom on this great subject should be known. When 
it is known it must be prevalent. It would be dreadful, in- 
deed, if there were any power in the nation capable of resist- 
ing its unanimous desire, or even the desire of any great or very 
decided majority of the people. The people may be deceived 
in their choice of an object, but lean scarcely conceive any 
choice they can make to be so mischievous as the existence of 
any human force capable of resisting it. It will certainly be 
the duty of every man, in the situation to which God has 
called him, to give his best opinion and advice upon the 
matter; it will not be his duty (let him think what he will) 
to use any violent or fraudulent means of counteracting the 
general wish, or even of employing the legal and constructive 
organ of expressing the people's sense against the sense which 
they so actually entertained." "I must beg leave to observe, 
that it is not only the invidious branch of taxation, that will 
be resisted, but, that no other given part of legislative rights 



45 



too long habituated to believe, that the only firm 
seat of ail authority is in the minds, affections and 
interests of the people* , to change our sentiments 

can be exercised, without regard to the general opinion of those 
ivho are to be governed. That general opinion is the vehicle 
and organ of legislative omnipotence." (Burke's Works, vol. iii. 
p. 179.) " In effect, to follow, not to force the public incli- 
nation ; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a 
specific sanction to the. general sense of the community, is the 
true end of legislature." (Ibid. p. 180). 

* Mr. Burke often touches on this point. Thus, "without 
something of this kind I do not see how it is ever piacticable 
really to reconcile with those (the people) whose affection, 
after all, must be the surest hold of our government ; and which 
is a thousand times of more worth to us than the mercenary 
zeal of all the circles of Germany." (Vol. iii. p. 159). " I con- 
fess, that I should prefer independency without a war, to 
independency with it : and I have so much trust in the inclina- 
tions and prejudices of mankind, and so little in any thing 
else, that I should expect ten titnes more benefit to this kingdom 
from the affection of America, though under a separate esta- 
blishment, than from her perfect submission to the crown and 
parliament, accompanied with her terror, disgust, and abhor- 
rence." (Ibid. p. 194.) Junius agrees with Mr. Burke, that 
the firmest seat and best security of authority is in the inte- 
rests and affections of the people. Thus, in his preface, where 
he says to the King — " Sir, you alone are the author of the 
greatest wrong to your subjects and to yourself. Instead of 
reigning in the hearts of your people, instead of commanding their 
lives and fortunes through the medium of their affections, has not 
the strength of the crown, whether influence or prerogative, 
been uniformly exerted, for eleven years together, to support 
a narrow, pitiful system of government, which defeats itself, 
mil answers no one purpose of real power, profit, or personal 
satisfaction to your" (Vol. i. p. 42, 3.) And again, "An 
amiable, accomplished prince ascends the throne under the 
happiest of all auspices, the acclamations and united affections of 
hia tuhjects." (Ibid. p. 151.) And to the same effect, " What 



46 



for the convenience of a temporary arrangement 
of state. It is not consistent with equity, or wis* 
dom, to set at defiance the general feelings of great 
communities, and all the orders whicli compose 
them. Much power is tolerated, and passes un- 
questioned, where much is yielded to opinion, all 
is disputed where every thing is enforced. This 
is the tenet we hold on the duty and policy of 
conforming to the prejudices of a whole people, 
even where the foundation of such prejudices 
may be false or disputable. But permit us to 
lay at your Majesty's feet our deliberate judg- 
ment on the real merits of that principle, the vio- 
lation of which is the known ground and origin of 
these troubles. We assure your Majesty, that, 
on our parts, we should think ourselves unworthy 

is the dignity of the crown, though it were really maintained; 
what is the honour of parliament, supposing it could exist 
-without any foundation of integrity, or justice ; or what is the 
vain reputation of firmness, even if the scheme of government 
were uniform and consistent, compared with the heart-felt affec~ 
tions of the people, with the happiness and security of the Royal 
Family, or even ivith the grateful acclamations of the populace ?" 
(Junius, Vol. ii. p. 133-4, and ibid. 194.) u No man carries 
farther, than I do, the policy of making government pleasing 
to the people." (Speech at Bristol.) " They may be assured, 
that however they amuse themselves with a variety of pro- 
jects for substituting something else in the place of that great 
and only foundation of government, the confidence of the 
people, every attempt will but make their condition worse." 
(Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, p. 56 f 
see also ibid. p. 2.) 



47 

of life, which we value only for the means of 
spending it in honour and virtue, if we ever sub- 
mitted to taxes, to which we did not consent, 
either directly, or by a representation satisfactory 
to the body of the people*." ***. "Abuses of 

* Is not the masterly hand, which produced this, clearly 
discernible in the following beautiful passage in Junius? "We 
owe it to our ancestors, to preserve entire those rights which 
they have delivered to our care : we owe it to our posterity 
not to suffer their dearest inheritance to be destroyed. But, 
if it were possible for us to be insensible of these sacred claims, 
there is yet an obligation binding upon ourselves, from which 
nothing can acquit us; apersonalinterest,which wecannot sur- 
render. To alienate even our own rights would be a crime, as 
much more enormous than suicide, as a life of civil security and 
freedom is superior to a bare existence; and, if life be the bounty of 
heaven, we scornfully reject the noblest part of the gift, if we consent 
to surrender that certain rule of living, without which the condition 
of human nature is not only miserable but contemptible." (Junius, 
Vol. i. p. 223-4-.) The following extract from his Dedication 
contains partly the same sentiments. " When you leave the 
unimpaired hereditary freehold to your children, you do but 
half your duty. Both liberty and property are precarious, 
unless the possessors have sense and spirit enough to defend 
them." Mr. Burke, hints at the doctrine, principally alluded 
to in the above extracts, in other parts of his writings : Thus, 
in Ins speech on American conciliation — " In this character 
of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating 
feature, which marks and distinguishes the whole : and, as an 
ardent is always a jealous affection, your colonies become 
suspicious, restive and untractable, whenever they see the 
least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from 
them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth liv- 
ing for." (Burke's Works, Vol. iii. p. 49.) The reader may 
also look into the last paragraph of the thirtieth Letter of 
Junius, (Vol. ii. p. 44) where, I think, he will be able to 
rtise sentiments of a similar nature, as well as in the 



48 



subordinate authority increase, and all means ot 
redress lessen, as the distance of the subject re- 
moves him from the seat of the supreme power. 
What, in those circumstances, can save him from 
the last extremes of indignity and oppression, 
but something left in his own hands, which may 
enable him to conciliate the favour, and controul 
the excesses of government? When no means are 
possessed of power to awe, or to oblige, the 
strongest ties which connect mankind in every 
relation, social and civil, and which teach them 
mutually to respect each other, are broken. In- 
dependency from that moment virtually exists. Its 
formal declaration will quickly follow •. Such must 
be our feelings for ourselves. We are not in pos- 
session of another rule for our brethren. When 
the late attempt practically to annihilate that 
privilege was made, great disorders and tumults 
very unhappily and very naturally arose from it. 
In this state of things, we were of opinion, that 
satisfaction ought instantly to be given, or that, 



following passage in his letter to the King : " But if the Eng- 
lish people should no longer confine their resentment to a 
submissive representation of their wrongs; if, following the 
glorious example of their ancestors, they should no longer 
appeal to the creature of the constitution, but to that High 
Being, who gave them the rights of humanity, whose gifts it were 
sacrilege to surrender, let me ask you, sir, upon what part of 
your subjects would you rely for assistance?" 



49 



at least, the punishment of the disorder ought to 
be attended with the redress of the grievances : 
Because, whenever a disorder arises from, and is 
directly connected zvith a grievance, to confine our- 
selves to the punishment of the disorder is to de- 
clare against the reason and justice of the corn- 
plaint.''' " The methods then recommended and 
followed, as infallible means of restoring peace 
and older, we could not consider as, at all, 
adapted to these purposes: — on the contrary, 
we looked upon them to be, what they have 
proved to be, the cause of inflaming discontents 
into disobedience, and resistance into revolt." 

Are not these the exact sentiments of Junius ? 
and is there a passage in all his writings, which 
possesses more of his peculiar style and manner, 
or which has more of his proverbial vigour, than 
the following, taken from this able and admirable 
address ? " We could not conceive, when dis- 
orders had arisen from the complaint of one vio- 
lated right, that to violate every other was the 
proper means of quieting exasperated minds. 
Recourse was had to force, and we saw a force 
sent out, enough to menace liberty, but not to awe 
resistance ; tending to bring odium on the civil 
power, and contempt on the military ; at once to 
provoke and encourage resistance. This mode 



50 



of proceeding, by harsh laws, and feeble armies 
could not be defended on the principle of mercy 
and forbearance ; for mercy, as we consider, 
consists not in the weakness of the means, but in 
the benignity of the ends. We apprehend, that. 
mild measures may be powerfully enforced; and 
that acts of extreme rigour and injustice may be 
attended with as much feebleness in the execution, 
as severity in the formation.'" — On the subject 
of America he still goes on : — " In consequence 
of these terrors, which, falling upon some, threat- 
ened all, the Colonies made a common cause 
with the sufferers, and proceeded, on their parts, 
to acts of resistance. Again, we besought your 
Majesty's ministers to entertain some distrust 
of the operation of coercive measures, and to 
profit of their experience. This experience had 
no effect. The modes of legislative rigour were 
construed not to have been erroneous in their 
policy, but too limited in their extent. New 
severities were adopted. The fisheries of your 
people in America followed their charters ; and 
their mutual combination to defend their com- 
mon rights brought on a prohibition of their 
mutual commercial intercourse. No distinction 
of persons or merits was observed ; the peaceable 
and the mutinous, friends and foes, were alike 
involved, as if the rigour of the law had a ten- 



51 

dency to recommend the authority of the legis- 
lator." *** " It seemed to us absurd, in the 
highest degree, to hold out, as a means of quiet- 
ing a people on the point of taking arms, the 
austere law, which a rigid conqueror would en- 
force on his ultimate success. Force was sent 
out not sufficient to hold one town', laws were 
passed to inflame thirteen provinces; at length 
British blood was spilt by British hands ! a fatal 
era ! which we must ever deplore, because your 
empire will for ever feel it. Your Majesty was 
touched with a sense of so great a disaster; your 
paternal breast was affected with the sufferings 
of your English subjects in America. You in- 
clined to relieve their distresses, and to pardon 
their errors. You felt their sufferings under the 
late penal acts of parliament ; but your ministry 
felt differently : not discouraged by the perni- 
cious consequences of all they had hitherto ad- 
vised, they obtained another act of parliament, 
in which the rigours of all the former were con- 
solidated and embittered by circumstances of ad- 
ditional severity and outrage. The whole trading 
property, even innoxious shipping in port, was 
indiscriminately and irrecoverably given, as the 
plunder of foreign enemies, to the sailors of your 
navy. This property was put out of the reach 
of your mere}'. Your people were despoiled, 



52 

and your navy, by a new, dangerous, prolific 
example, corrupted with the plunder of their 
countrymen. They were put in their general 
and political, as well as personal capacities, out 
of the protection of your government. They 
were put on the footing not only of foreigners, 
but of foreign enemies." *** " We are sure, 
that we have your Majesty's heart along with 
us, when we declare in favour of mixing some- 
thing conciliatory with our force ; and had rather 
they should yield to well-ascertained and well- 
authenticated terms of reconciliation, than 'that 
your Majesty should owe the recovery of your 
dominions to their total waste and destruction ; 
or suffer difficult questions, lying deep in the 
vital principles of the British constitution, to be 
solved by the coarse barbarism and very unprin- 
cipled military conduct of German mercenaries." 
***. " To leave any real freedom to parliament 
much must be left to the colonies. Military power 
is the only substitute for civil liberty. That the 
establishment of such a power will exhaust our 
finances, though a certain effect, is the least of 
our apprehensions. It will become an apt in- 
strument of destroying our freedom. Great 
forces of armed men, kept up for the purpose of 
trampling on the express image of English pri- 
vileges, will come rather to hate the principles 



53 

they oppress, than to make distinctions among 
those who adhere to it. All our troops, in the 
rotation of service, will pass through this disci- 
pline, and must contract these habits. We de- 
precate the consequence. We deprecate the 
effect of the doctrines, which must support and 
countenance the government over conquered En- 
glishmen. It will be impossible long to resist 
the powerful and equitable arguments in favour 
of the freedom of these unhappy people, to be 
drawn from the principle of our own liberty. 
Attempts will be made, attempts have been 
made, to ridicule and to argue away this prin- 
ciple, and to inculcate into the minds of your 
people other maxims of government, and other 
grounds of obedience, than those, which have pre- 
vailed at and since the glorious revolution. By de- 
grees , these doctrines, by being convenient may grozv 
prevalent ,- the consequence is not certain : but a 
general change of principles rarely happens among 
a people, without leading to a change of govern- 
ment." *** " Sire, your throne cannot stand 
secure upon the principles of unconditional sub- 
mission, or passive obedience, on powers exercised 
without the concurrence of the people to be govern- 
ed, 071 acts made in defiance of their prejudices 
and habilr, on acquiescence procured by foreign 
mercenary troops, and secured by standing armies. 



54 

They may possibly be the foundation of other 
thrones ; they must be the subversion of yours** 
" It was not to passive principles in our ancestors, 
that we owe the honour of appearing before a 
sovereign, who cannot feel, that he is a prince, 
without knowing, that we ought to be free. The 
revolution is a departure from the ancient course 
of the descent of this monarchy. The people 
re-entered into their original rights ; and it was 
not because a positive law authorised the act, 
but because the freedom and safety of the subject, 
the origin and cause of all laws, required a pro- 
ceeding paramount and superior to them. At 
that ever memorable and instructive period the 
letter of the law zvas superseded in favour of the 
substance of liberty. To the free choice, there- 
fore, of the people, without either king or parlia- 
ment, zve owe that happy establishment, of which 
both king and parliament were regenerated." 
" From that great principle of liberty these 
statutes have originated, which have confirmed 
and ratified that establishment, from which your 
Majesty derives your right to rule over us*. 
These statutes have not given us our liberties : 

* In his address to the King, Junius says: — " Nor can 
you ever succeed, unless he (Wilkes) should be imprudent 
enough to forfeit the protection of those laws to which you owe 
your crown." 



55 



our liberties have produced them. Every hour 
of your Majesty's reign, your title stands upon 
the very same foundation, on which it was first 
laid ; and we do not know a better on which it 
can possibly be placed. Convinced, that you 
cannot have different rights and different secu- 
rity in different parts of your dominions, we wish 
to lay an even platform for your throne, and to 
give it an immoveable stability, by laying it on 
the general freedom of your people, and by secur- 
ing equally to your Majesty, that confidence and 
affection, in all parts of your dominions, which 
make your best security and dearest title in this 
chief seat of your empire*." " Such, sire, being 
amongst us the foundation of the monarchy 
itself, much more clearly and peculiarly is it the 
ground of all parliamentary power. Parliament 
is a security provided for the protection of free- 
dom, and not a subtle fiction contrived to amuse 
the people in its place f ; and the authority of 
both Houses can still less than that of the crown 
be supported upon different principles, or dif- 
ferent places, so as to be for one part of your 
subjects a protector of liberty, and for another 
a fund of despotism, by which prerogative i 

* Vi<!e supra, p. 45, of this Inquiry ; and the note, ibid 
t Seep. 16 of this Inquiry ; and the notes, ibid. 



56 



tended by occasional powers, whenever an arbi- 
trary will finds itself streightened by the restric- 
tions of law. Had it seemed good to Parliament 
to consider itself as the indulgent guardian and 
strong protector of the freedom of the subordi- 
nate popular assemblies, instead of exercising 
its powers to their utter annihilation, there is no 
doubt, that it ne\er could be their inclination, 
because not their interest, to have raised captious 
questions on its extent, or to have enfeebled 
privileges, which were the security of their own. 
Powers evident from necessity, and not suspi- 
cious from an alarming mode, or purpose of 
application, would, as formerly they were, be 
cheerfully submitted to ; and these would have 
been fully sufficient for the conservation of unity 
in the empire ; and for directing its wealth to 
one common centre. Another use has pro- 
duced other consequences ; and a power, which 
refuses to be limited by its own moderation, 
must either be lost, or find other more distinct 
and satisfactory limitations. As for us, a partici- 
pation in arbitrary power would never reconcile 
our minds to it. We should be ashamed to stand 
before your Majesty boldly asserting inherent 
rights, which bind and regulate the crown itself, 
and yet insisting on the exercise in our own per sons 
of a more arbitrary sway over our fellow- citizens 



51 

and fellow-freemen.'" Such are some of the most 
leading passages in this eloquent and spirited 
remonstrance. To such of my readers as are 
acquainted with the style and manner of Junius, 
it will be unnecessary for me to offer any com- 
ments upon them. The only remark, which I 
shall make on the subject is, that this address 
not only resembles the style of the Letters, but, 
considering that it was intended to be presented 
to the King, is distinguished by as great a free- 
dom of thinking, and as bold and dignified a 
spirit of remonstrance, as can be met with in 
almost any part of Junius. It was, therefore, 
as much with a view of convincing the reader of 
this last point, as to shew the similarity of style, 
that I made so many extracts from it. 

Mr. Burke, finding, that he could not pre- 
vail on the minority, with whom he acted, to 
secede from parliament as he wished, or to 
carry up this address to the king, thought it his 
duty to lay the sentiments it contained more 
fully before the public, which he did accord- 
ingly, in a short time after, in his famous letter 
to the sheriffs of Bristol. This letter, being 
little more than the address in an expanded 
form, I find also that, like that, it has many 
features of resemblance to Junius. To these.. 



5Z 



therefore, I mean, in the next place, to call the 
attention of my readers. " It affords no matter 
for very pleasing reflection, to observe, that our 
subjects diminish) as our laws increase." This 
is the exact antithetic manner, that balancing 
and contrasting of the different parts of his sen- 
tences with one another, which, more than all 
other peculiarities, distinguish the style of Junius. 
If the reader has paid sufficient attention to 
them, he will find the same peculiarity in almost 
all the extracts which I have hitherto made 
from the writings of Mr. Burke. It will be 
equally evident in those to which I am now 
about to direct his attention. " I have no 
doubt, that we feel exactly the same emo- 
tions of grief and shame on all its (the Ame- 
rican civil war) miserable consequences ; whe- 
ther they appear on the one side, or the other, in 
the shape of victories, or defeats, of captures made 
from the English on the continent, or from the 
English in these islands ; of legislature regula- 
tions, which subvert the liberties of our brethren, 
or undermine our own." — (Burke's Works, vol. iii. 
p. 136.) Alluding to, and reprobating the con- 
struction, put by the ministry, on an act of the 
time of Henry VIII. for the trial in this king- 
dom of treasons committed out of the realm, 
which they meant to extend to America, he 
concludes a fine passage with these words : — 



59 

'•' Such a person (an American brought over to 
be tried in this country) may be executed accord- 
ing to form, but lie can never be tried according 
to justice" (Ibid. p. 140.) And in the same 
page — " If the English, in the colonies, can 
support the independency, to which they have 
been unfortunately driven, I suppose nobody 
has such a fanatical zeal for the criminal justice 
of Henry VIII. that he will contend for execu- 
tions, which must be retaliated tenfold on his 
own friends ; or who has conceived so strange an 
idea of English dignity, as to think the defeats 
in America compensated by the triumphs at Ty- 
burn." — " Indeed our affairs are in a bad con- 
dition. I do assure those gentlemen, who have 
prayed for war, and obtained the blessing they 
have sought, that they are at this instant in very 
great straits. The abused wealth of this country 
continues a little longer to feed its distemper. — 
As yet they, and their German allies of twenty 
hireling states, have contended only with the 
unprepared strength of our infant colonies — But 
America is not subdued. Not one unattacked 
village, which was originally adverse throughout 
that vast continent, has yet submitted from love 
or terror. You have the ground you encamp on ; 
and you have no more. The cantonments of your 
troops and your dominions are exactly of the same 



60 



extent. You spread devastation, but you do not 
enlarge the sphere of authority" (Ibid. p. 155.) 
" There are many circumstances in the zeal 
shown for civil war, which seem to discover but 
little of real magnanimity. The addressers offer 
their own persons, and they are satisfied with 
hiring Germans. They promise their private 
fortunes, and they mortgage their country. They 
have all the merit of volunteers, without risk of 
person, or charge of contribution. And when 
the unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery pours out 
their kindred blood like water, they exult and 
triumph, as if they themselves had performed 
some notable exploit." (Ibid. p. 158.) " But 
the rebels looked for assistance from this country. 
They did so in the beginning of this controversy 
most certainly : and they sought it by earnest 
supplications to government, which dignity re- 
jected, and by a suspension of commerce, which 
the wealth of this nation enabled you to despise. 
When they found that neither prayers nor 
menaces had any sort of Weight, but that a firm 
resolution was taken to reduce them to uncon- 
ditional obedience by a military force, they came 
to the last extremity. Despairing of us, they 
trusted in themselves. Not strong enough them- 
selves, they sought succour in France. In pro- 
portion as all encouragement here lessened, their 



61 

distance from this country increased. The en- 
couragement is over ; the alienation is complete.'" 
(Ibid. p. 172.) " They (the people of England) 
were not moved from their evident interest, by 
all these arts ; nor was it enough to tell them 
they were at war ; that they must go through 
with it ; and that the cause of the dispute 
wras lost in the consequences. The people of 
England were then, as they are now, called upon 
to make government strong. They thought it a 
great deal better to make it wise and honest." 
(Ibid. p. 173.) " If such powers of treaty were 
to be wished whilst success was very doubtful, 
how came they to be less so, since his Majesty's 
arms have been covvned with many considerable 
advantages ? Have these successes induced us to 
alter our mind, as thinking the season of victory 
not the time for treating with honour or advan- 
tage ? Whatever changes have happened in the 
national character, it can scarcely be our wish, 
that terms of accommodation never should be pro- 
posed to our enemy, except when they must be 
attributed solely to our fears. It has happened, 
let me say, unfortunately, that we read of his 
Majesty's commission for making peace, and his 
troops evacuating his last town in the thirteen 
provinces, at the same hour, and in the same 
gazette. It was still more unfortunate that no 



62 



commission went to America to settle the trou- 
bles there until several months after an act had 
been passed to put the colonies out of the pro- 
tection of this government, and to divide their 
trading property without a possibility of restitu- 
tion, as spoil among the seamen of the navy — The 
most abject submission on the part of the colonies 
could not redeem them. There was no man on 
that whole continent, or within three thousand 
miles of it, qualified by law to follow allegiance 
with protection, or submission with pardon.''* 
(Ibid. p. 175.) " I was persuaded that govern- 
ment was a practical thing made for the happi- 
ness of mankind, and not to furnish out a spec- 
tacle of uniformity to gratify the schemes of 
visionary politicians. Our business was to rule, 
not to wrangle ; and it would have been a poor 
compensation, that we had triumphed in a dispute* 
whilst we lost an empire." (Ibid. p. 183.) 

In the dedication of the Letters of Junius the 
following passage occurs : — " If an honest, and, 
I may truly affirm, a laborious, zeal for the 
public service, has given me any weight in your 
esteem, let me exhort and conjure you never to 
suffer an invasion of your political constitution, 
however minute the instance may appear, to 
pass by, without a determined, persevering re- 



63 



distance. — One precedent creates another. They 
soon accumulate and constitute law. What 
yesterday was fact, to-day is doctrine. Examples 
are supposed to justify the most dangerous 
measures ; and where they do not suit exactly, 
the defect is supplied by analogy. Be assured, 
that the laws which protect us in our civil rights, 
grow out of the constitution, and must fall, or 
flourish with it. This is not the cause of faction, 
or of party, or of any individual, but the common 
interest of every man in Britain." If we com- 
pare this passage with the following in Mr. 
Burke's Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, we shall 
find some resemblance between them, not, in- 
deed, in point of style, but in a certain degree 
of coincidence in the manner of thinking. « I 
must add, that far from softening the features of 
such a principle, and thereby removing any part 
of the popular odium, or natural terrors attend- 
ing it, I should be sorry that any thing framed 
in contradiction to the spirit of our constitution 
did not instantly produce, in fact, the grossest 
of the evils, with which it was pregnant in its 
nature. It is by lying dormant a long time, or 
being first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary 
power steals upon a people. On the next un- 
constitutional act, all the fashionable world will 
be ready to say : Your prophecies are ridiculous, 



64 

your fears are vain, you see how little of the 
mischiefs, which you formerly foreboded, are 
come to pass. Thus, by degrees, that artful 
softening of all arbitrary power, the alledged 
infrequency, or narrow extent of its operation, 
will be received as a sort of aphorism. And Mr. 
Hume will not be singular in telling us, that the 
felicity of mankind is no more disturbed by it, 
than by earthquakes, or thunder, or the other 
more unusual accidents of nature." (Works, 
vol. iii. p. 150.) There is also another passage 
in this Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, the ten- 
dency of which is, in a great degree, similar to 
that, which has been just quoted from the Dedi- 
cation to Junius. <f People zvithout much diffi- 
culty admit the entrance of that injustice, of 
which they are not to be the immediate victims. 1 * 
*** " The alarm of such a proceeding would 
then be universal. It would operate as a sort 
of call of the nation. It would become every 
man's immediate and instant concern to be 
made very sensible of the absolute necessity of 
this total eclipse of liberty. They would more 
carefully advert to every renewal, and more 
powerfully resist it. These great determined 
measures are not commonly so dangerous to 
freedom — They are marked with two strong 
lines to slide into use. No plea, nor pretence 



65 



of inconvenience or evil example (which must in 
their nature be daily and ordinary incidents) 
can be admitted as a reason for such mighty 
operations. But the true danger is, when liberty 
is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts." 
(Vol. iii. p. 146-7.) 

Having already made so many extracts from 
Mr. Burke's Letter, though it contains many 
others calculated to confirm the opinion which it 
is my wish to establish, I shall now confine myself 
to one or two; nor shall I add any comments upon 
them. " What but that blindness of heart, which 
arises from the phrenzy of civil contention, could 
have made any persons conceive the present 
situation of the British affairs, as an object of 
triumph to themselves, or of congratulation to 
their sovereign ? Nothing surely could be more 
lamentable to those, who remember the flourishing 
days of this kingdom, than to see the insane joy 
of several unhappy people, amidst the sad spec- 
tacle which our affairs and conduct exhibit to the 
scorn of Europe. We behold, (and it seeim 
some people rejoice in beholding) our native 
land, which used to sit the envied arbiter of all 
her neighbours, reduced to a servile dependence 
on their mercy ; acquiescing in assurances of 
/ship, which she does not trust; complaining of 



66 



hostilities, which she dares not resent j deficient to 
her allies ; lofty to her subjects, and submissive to 
her enemies ; whilst the liberal government of 
this free nation is supported by the hireling sword 
of German boors and vassals ; and three millions 
of the subjects of Great Britain are seeking for 
protection to English privileges in the arms of 
France." (Ibid. p. 153.) The following is the 
last extract, which it is now my intention to 
make from this letter. " I scarcely know," says 
Mr. Burke, " how to adapt my mind to the 
feelings, with which the court gazettes mean to 
impress the people. It is not instantly, that I 
can be brought to rejoice, when I hear of the 
slaughter and captivity of long lists of those 
names, which have been familiar to my ears from 
my infancy, and to rejoice, that they have fallen 
under the sword of strangers, whose barbarous 
appellations I scarcely know how to pronounce. 
The glory acquired, at the White Plains, by 
colonel Raille, has no charms for me ; and I 
fairly acknowledge, that I have not yet learned 
to delight in finding Fort K?iiphausen in the 
heart of the British dominions" (Ibid. p. 154.) 

Although this passage was written in 1777> 
I think, that several of my readers will not be 
disinclined to think with me, that it was dic- 
tated by the same mind, which produced the 



67 



Jollowing, nine years before, that is in 1768. 
ft 11 the beginning of one of the miscellaneous 
letters of Junius, which he addressed, on the 
19th of July, that year, to the printer of the 
Public Advertiser. " The spirit, which once 
animated the London Gazette, seems to have 
expired with the war. The learned compiler of 
thai paper was blest with a genius equal to the 
description of battles and victories, but could 
not descend with dignity to the pacific annals of 
domestic economy. While our troops were sa- 
crificed abroad, his pen was employed, with equal 
bravery, in murdering our language at home. 
He never lost a consonant from the Elbe to the 
< r, or mollified one circumstance in all the 
guttural pomp of a German campaign." (Vol. iii. 

Nor is this the only instance, in which Burke 
and Junius agree with respect to the employ- 
ment of a hireling German soldiery. Neither of 
them ever touches upon the subject, but in terms 
expressive of abhorrence, contempt, or indig- 
nation *. (See his Works, vol. iii. p. %Q3, 157-8 ; 
167, 8, 9, &c. and p. 52,3, 4, of this Inquiry.) 

' The writer of a sketch of Mr. Burke's Life, after quoting 
the above passage from the Letter to the Sheri/ls<if JiristoJ,ailds 
tti' following remark upon it. " In other instances, as often 



6S 

As it is probable, that those critics, who main- 
tain, that Mr. Burke could not write in the style 
and manner of Junius, will not be very easily 
convinced, I shall proceed to lay before them 
some further extracts, in order to weaken their 
confidence in the solidity of that favourite opi- 
nion. Will they maintain, that the following 
passage has no resemblance to the writings of 
Junius, where Mr. Burke, remarking on the Ame- 
rican policy of Lord North, says, towards the end 
of his speech on American taxation : " How we 
have fared since then — what woeful variety of 
schemes have been adopted -, what enforcing, 
and what repealing ; what bullying and what 
submitting ; what doing and undoing ; what 
straining and what relaxing; what assemblies 
dissolving for not obeying, and called again 
without obedience ; what troops sent out to quell 
resistance, and, on meeting that resistance, re- 
called ; what shiftings and changes, and jum- 
blings, of all kinds of men at home, which 
left no possibility of order, consistency, vigour, 
or even so much as a decent unity of colour 
in any one public measure. It is a tedious 



as he touched on German mercenaries, his warmth kindled 
into indignation, his passions flew to arms, and, in the con- 
flict, it was seldom that the petty princes of Germany them- 
selves escaped with a string of epithets as long as their titles/* 



69 



irksome task — my duty may call me to open 
it oat some other time. *** For the present I 
shall forbear." 

The constant and repeated changes of the 
ministry, alluded to in the conclusion of the 
above extract, as well as their own private dis- 
ms, squabbles, and animosities, were made 
frequent objects of censure, invective and ridi- 
cule, both by Burke and Junius. Burke, in his 
ironical answer to his own short account of a 
late short administration, says : " But the main 
design of my taking pen in hand was to refute 
the silly author of a late silly publication, called 
a short Account of a late short Administration. 
This hall-sheet accomptant shows his ill humour 
in the very title : he calls one year and twenty 
days a short administration ; whereas lean prove, 
by the Rule of Three Direct, that it is as much as 
any ministry in these times has a right to expect. 
Since the happy accession of his present Majesty 
to this day, we have worn out no less than five 
complete sets of honest, able, upright ministers, 
not to speak of the present, whom God long 
preserve! First, we had Mr. Pitt's administra- 
tion; next, the Duke of Newcastle's; then. 
Lord Bute's; then, Mr. Grenville'sj and lastly, 
my Lord Rockingham's. Now, sir, if you take 



70 

a bit of chalk and reckon from the seventh of 
Oct. 1760, to the 13th of July, 1766, you will 
find five years, nine months, and thirty days ! 
which divided by Jive, the total of administrations, 
gives exactly one year and sixty days each, on 
an average, as we say in the city, and one day 
more, if they have the good fortune to serve in 
leap year." He also remarks in the same letter, 
alluding to the patchwork ministry then formed 
by Lord Chatham, " He has once more deigned 
to take the reins of government in his own 
hand, and will, no doubt, drive with his wonted 
speed, and raise a deal of dust around him. 
His horses are all matched to his mind ; but, as 
some of them are young and skittish, it is said 
he has adopted the new contrivance lately ex- 
hibited by Sir Francis Delaval, on Westminster 
Bridge ; whenever they begin to snort and toss 
up their heads, he touches the spring, throws 
them loose, and away they go, leaving his Lord- 
ship safe and snug, and as much at his ease as if 
he sat on a wool-pack." The admirable picture, 
which he drew of the same ministry, eight years 
after, (in 1774), will never be forgotten. " He 
(Lord Chatham) made an administration, so 
chequered and speckled ; he put together a piece 
of joinery, so crossly indented and whimsically 
dovetailed ; a cabinet so variously inlaid ; such a 



71 

piece of diversified mosaic; such a tesselated pave- 
ment without cement — here a bit of black stone, 
and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers; 
king's friends and republicans ; whigs and tories ; 
herous friends and open enemies; that it was, 
d, a very curious shew, but utterly unsafe to 
touch, and unsound to stand on. The colleagues, 
i he had assorted at the same boards, stared 
at each other, and were obliged to ask, ' Sir, 
your name ? Sir you have the advantage of me. 
Mr. Such-a-one, I beg a thousand pardons.' 
I venture to say, it did so happen, that persons 
had a single office divided between them, who 
liad never spoken to each other in their lives ; 
until they found themselves, they knew not how, 
pigging together, heads and points, in the same 
truckle-bed." 

If we now turn our attention to Junius, we shall 
find, that this subject attracted his notice, as often 
as that of Mr. Burke. Speaking of the duration 
of parliament in his dedication, he remarks: " If 
you reflect, that in the changes of administration, 
which have marked and disgraced the present 
i *, although your warmest patriots have, in 

The following short statement will shew, that Burke 

and Junius had some reason for the severity with which they 

ilv commented on this subject. " From the time, that 



their turn, been invested with the lawful and un- 
lawful authority of the crown, &c." (Vol. i. p. 7.) 
And in his first letter — " After a rapid succession 
of changes, zve are reduced to that state, which 
hardly any change can mend." And again ; 
" The palm of ministerial firmness is now trans- 
fered to Lord North. He tells us so himself, 
with the plenitude of the ore rotundo ; and I am 
ready enough to believe, that, while he can keep 
his place, he will not easily be persuaded to 
resign it. Your Grace was the firm minister of 
yesterday ; Lord North is the firm minister of 
to-day; to-morrow, perhaps, his Majesty, in his 
wisdom, may give us a rival for you both." 
(Vol. ii. p. 102.) Alluding to the Chatham 
ministry, so severely ridiculed by Mr. Burke, 
Junius remarks, that — " The blindness of chance 
has done more for the painter, than the warmest 
fancy could have imagined, and has brought 
together such a group of figures, as, I believe, 
never appeared in real life, or on canvass, be- 



the Rt. Hon. Henry Bilson Legge was discharged from the 
office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, in May 1701, and 
Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt resigned the 18th of September 
that year, no less than 523 changes of places, outs and ins, 
happened, (up to the time of the Rockingham administration,) 
by the fluctuating of ministerial influence ; a circumstance 
hardly to be paralleled in any annals." (Sketch of the Life,. 
&c. of Mr. Burke.) 



73 

fore *." (Vol. ii. p. 471 .) This and the following 
passage, though different in the expression, are 
in the same spirit with that cited above from the 
speech on American taxation. " The uncertain 
state of politics in this country sets all the spe- 
culations of the press at defiance. To talk of 
modern ministers, or to examine their conduct, 
would be to reason without data ; for, whether it 
be owing to the real simple innocence of doing 
nothing, or to a happy mysteriousness in con- 
cealing their activity, we know as little of the 
services theij have performed, since it became their 
lot to appear in the Gazette, as we did of their 
persons or characters before. They seem to have 

* This extract is taken from one of his miscellaneous 
Letters, signed Correggio, in which he sketches a design for 
Lord Towshend, (who, he says, was fond of painting) in 
order to enable him to give a more finished portrait of all 
the leading Cabinet Ministers of that time. To do Junius 
justice, his design is certainly sketched with much severity, 
boldness, satire, and ability. It deserves to be remarked 
here, that no man can be supposed more likely to have 
written such a letter than Mr. Burke, whom Sir Joshua 
Reynolds declared the best judge of painting he ever knew. — 
Allusions to the language of painting, and metaphors drawn 
from that source, are common in the writings of Junius and 
of Burke. " Struck with the principal figure, we do not 
sufficiently mark in what manner the canvass is filled up." 
(. Junius, vol. ii. p. 35.) " As a part of this system, and in 
order to give it due roundness and relief, it was thought proper, 
^c." (Vol. iii. p. 100.) " Reformation is one of those pieces 
which must be put at some distance in order to please." 
(Uurkc, vol. iii. p. 235.) 



74 

come together by a sort of fortuitous concourse y 
and have hitherto done nothing else but jumble 
and jostle one another, without being able to settle 
into any one regular, or consistent figure. I am 
not, however, such an atheist in politics, as to 
suppose, that there is not somewhere an original 
creating cause, which drew these atoms forth into 
existence ; but it seems the utmost skill and 
cunning of that secret governing hand could go 
no farther." (Vol. ii. p. 465.) " Since the ac- 
cession of our most gracious sovereign to the 
throne, we have seen a system of government, 
which may well be called a reign of experiments. 
Parties of all denominations have been employed 
and dismissed. The advice of the ablest men in 
this country has been repeatedly called for and 
rejected i and when the Royal displeasure has 
been signified to a minister ; the marks of it have 
usually been proportioned to his abilities and in- 
tegrity. The spirit of the favourite had some 
apparent influence upon every administration ; 
and every set of ministers preserved an appear- 
ance of duration, as long as they submitted to that 
influence. But there were certain services to be 
performed for the Favourite's security, or to 
gratify his resentments, which your predecessors 
in office had the wisdom or the virtue not to 
undertake. The moment this refractory spirit 



75 

discovered, their disgrace was determined. 
Lord Chatham, Mr. Grenville, and Lord Rock- 
ingham have successively had the honour to be 
dismissed for preferring their duty, as servants 
of the public, to those compliances, which were 
expected from their station. A submissive ad- 
ministration was at Last gradually collected from 
the deserters of all parties, interests, and conneC' 
turns ; and nothing remained but to find %, leader 
for these gallant, well-disciplined troops." (Ju- 
nius, vol. i. p. 166.) If I do not deceive myself 
egregiously it will strike the mind of every 
candid scholar, as highly probable, that the 
above passage from Junius, and the following 
from the works of Mr. Burke, were written by 

jme hand. " As a foundation of their 
scheme, the cabal have established a sort of 
rota in the court. All sorts of parties, by this 
means, have been brought into administration, 
Jrom tt hence fezo have had the good fortune to 
escape without disgrace; none at all zoithout 
considerable losses. In the beginning of each 
arrangement no professions of confidence and sup- 
port are zvanting to induce the leading men to 
engage. But while the ministers of the day 
appear in all the pomp and pride of power, while 
they have all their canvass spread out to the 
wind, and every sail filled with the fair and 



76 

prosperous gale of Royal favour, in a short time 
they find, they know not how, a current, which 
sets dnectly against them; which prevents all 
progress, and even drives them backwards. 
They grow ashamed and mortified in a situation, 
which by its vicinity to power, only serves to 
remind them the more strongly of their insigni- 
ficance. They are obliged either to execute the 
orders of their inferiors, or to see themselves 
opposed by the natural instruments of their office. 
With the loss of their dignity, they lose their 
temper. In their turn they grow troublesome 
to that Cabal, which, whether it supports, or 
opposes, equally disgraces and equally betrays 
them. 77 is soon joand necessary to get rid of 
the heads of administration ; but it is of the heads 
only, as there ahcays are many rotten members 
belonging to the best connections, it is not hard to 
persuade several to continue in office without their 
leaders. By this means the party goes out 
much thinner than it came in ; and is only re- 
duced in strength by its temporary possession of 
power." 

Let us now turn our attention to what they 
say about the broken, distracted councils, and 
private disagreements of the ministry. I have, 
in an early part of this inquiry, quoted a pas- 



77 

from Mr. Burke, in which he says, " that 
nnection and confusion in office, in parties, 
in Jam i lies, in parliament, in the nation, pre- 
vail beyond the disorders of any former time." 
The following extract, on the same topic, is 
t;ik- n from a speech, which he made in the 
Commons, on the 24th of November, 
" I readily agree, that there is a cause 
of discord somewhere: where it is I will not 
pretend to say. That it does exist is certain ; 
and I much doubt, whether it is likely to be 
removed by any measures taken by the present 
administration. As to vague and general re- 
commendations to us to maintain unanimity 
amongst us, I must say I think they are become 
of late years too flat and stale to bear being 
ted. That such are the kind sentiments 
and wishes of our monarch I am far from doubt- 
ing ; but, when I consider it as the language of 
tli« minister, as a minister's recommendation, I 
i annot help thinking it a vain and idle parade of 
words without meaning. Is it in their oxen conduct 
thai we are to look for an example of this boasted 
union ? Shall zee discover any trace of it in their 
broken, distracted councils, their public disagree- 
ment r, and private animosities ? Is it not noto- 
rious, that they subsist only by creating divisions 
among others f That their plan is to separate 



78 

party from part}) ; friend from friend ; brother 
from brother ? Is not their very motto, Divide et 
wiper a ? When such men advise us to unite, 
what opinion must we have of their sincerity ?" — 
Such were the sentiments of Mr. Burke. Let us 
now attend to those of Junius on the same sub- 
ject, and, I am persuaded, that we shall find the 
coincidence of opinion as complete as could be 
expected. — " They (ihe ministry) persuade him 
(the king) to do what is properly their business, 
and desert him in the midst of it. Yet this is 
an inconvenience to which he must for ever be 
exposed, while he adheres to a ministry divided 
among themselves, or unequal in credit and abi- 
lity to the great task they have undertaken." 
(Vol. ii. p. 130.) Junius, in 1767, sent to the 
Public Advertiser a very severe and humorous 
account of what passed at a meeting of the privy 
council at Lord Shelburne's, called for the pur- 
pose of giving instructions to the Lord Lieu- 
tenant (Lord Townshend) then appointed to the 
government of Ireland. The letter is in the form 
of a dialogue, and possesses considerable merit. 
He introduces Lord Northington, (or Tilbury,) 
in one part, saying to Malagrida, (Lord Shel- 
burne), " No, damn me, 'tis a little too late,. 
1 thank you. Aside. This silly puppy takes me 
for his schoolmaster, and fancies I am obliged 



79 

to hear him repeat his task to me." Exit. 
Sulky, (Lord Towshend), is represented as utter- 
ing what follows. Aside. " What the devil 
shall I do now ? A sick man might as well ex- 
pect to be cured by a consultation of quack 
doctors ; they talk, and debate, and icrangle, and 
the patient expires." Malagrida, solus, speak- 
ing of his colleagues in office, concludes the 
dialogue in the following words : — " What a 
negro's skin must I have, if this shallow fellow 
could see jny meaning in my face ! — Now will 

I skulk away to , where I will betray, or 

misrepresent every syllable I have heard, ridicule 
their jyersons, blacken their characters, and fawn 
upon the man who hears me, until I have an 
opportunity of biting even him to the heart." 
Exit. (Junius, vol. ii. p. 490, 1, 2.) In a sub- 
sequent letter on the same subject, he has these 
words : " But the facts, of which the public are 
already possessed, sufficiently speak for them- 
, and the nation wants no further proof of 
the weakness, ignorance, irresolution, and spirit 
of discord, which reign triumphant in this illus- 
trious divan, who have dared to take upon them 
tlio conduct of an empire." (Vol. ii. p. 497.) 
" When the fate of Great Britain (says he in 
another place) is thrown upon the hazard of a 
die, ly a zveak, distracted, worthless ministry, an 



80 



honest man will always express all the indignation 
he feels." (Vol. iii. p. 74.) In one of his letters, 
signed Alliens, he gives the following character 
of the ministry. " The school they were bred 
in taught them how to abandon their friends, 
without deserting their principles. There is a 
littleness even in their ambition ; for money is 
their first object. Their professed opinions upon 
some great points are so different from those 
of the party, with which they are now united, 
that the council chamber is become a scene of open 
hostilities. While the fate of Great Britain is at 
stake, these worthy counsellors dispute without 
decency, advise without sincerity, resolve without 
decision, and leave the measure to be executed by 
the man who voted against it. This, I conceive, 
is the last disorder of the state. The consultation 
meets but to disagree. Opposite medicines are 
prescribed, and the last fixed on is changed by the 
hand that gives it." (Vol. iii. p. 175.) And in 
another letter under the same signature : " We 
are arrived at that point, when new taxes either 
produce nothing, or defeat the old ones; and 
when new duties only operate as a prohibition : 
Yet these are the times, sir, when every ignorant 
boy thinks himself fit to be a minister. Instead 
of attendance to objects of national importance, 
our worthy governors are contented to divide 



81 

their time between private pleasures and minis- 
terial intrigues. Their activity is just equal to 
the persecution of a prisoner in the King's 
Bench, and to the honourable struggle of pro- 
viding for their dependents. If there be a good 
man in the King's service they dismiss him of 
course ; and, when bad news arrives, instead of 
uniting to consider of a remedy, their time is 
spent in accusing and reviling one another. Thus 
the debate concludes in some half, misbegotten 
measure, which is left to execute itself — Away 
they go ; — one retires to his country house ; an- 
other is engaged at a horse-race j a third has 
an appointment with a prostitute; and, as to 
their country, they leave her, like a cast-off mis- 
tress, to perish under the diseases they have given 
her." (Vol. iii. p. 97.) 

There are several other passages in the works 
of both these writers of the same tendency, which 
I shall abstain from quoting, in order to avoid 
unnecessary prolixity. Let us again return to 
such extracts as prove a similarity of style : and 
I must, by the way, remark, should my extracts 
on this subject appear, to some of my readers, 
loo long, or too numerous, that my reason for 
multiplying them is a desire to settle this point 
fully, knowing, as I do, that the alledged diversity 



of his style has been the most hacknied argument 
against the claims of Mr. Burke, and being 
convinced, from my own experience, that pas- 
sages, which may carry conviction to one mind, 
will often have no influence, at all, upon another. 
I hope, and wish, therefore, by making a large 
selection of extracts to have it in my power to 
give some satisfaction to all. 

The concluding lines of the first paragraph of 
the speech on American taxation remind me of 
the style of Junius : — " For nine long years, 
session after session, we have been lashed round 
and round this miserable circle of occasional 
arguments and temporary expedients. I am 
sure our heads must turn, and our stomachs 
nauseate with them. We have had them in 
every shape ; we have looked at them in every 
point of view. Invention is exhausted ; reason 
is fatigued ; experience has given judgment ; but 
obstinacy is not yet conquered." Farther on, in 
the same speech, he asks : " Do you, after this, 
wonder, that you have no weight and no respect 
in the colonies ? after this, are you surprised, 
that parliament is every day and every where 
losing, (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it with 
reluctance,) that reverential affection, which so 
endearing a name of authority ought ever t© 



83 

curry with it ; that you are obeyed solely from 
respect to the bayonet ; and that this House, the 
ground and pillar of freedom, is itself held up 
only by the treacherous under-pinning and clumsy 
buttresses of arbitrary power ?" 

The two paragraphs, which follow this, have a 
good deal of the spirited and antithetic manner 
of Junius. In other parts of the same speech, 
we find many others of the same kind, such as 
the following, which I quote, by preference, on 
account of their comparative brevity. " I am 
not called upon to enlarge, to you, on that dan- 
ger, which you thought proper yourselves to 
ivate and to display to the world, with all 
the parade of indiscreet declamation. The mo- 
nopoly of the most lucrative trades, and the 
possession of imperial revenues, had brought you 
to the verge of beggary and ruin — Such was 
your representation — such, in some measure, 
was your case." " You are, therefore, at this 
moment in the awkward situation of fighting for 
a phantom ; a quiddity ; a thing that wants, 
not only a substance, but even a name ; for a 
thing, which is neither abstract "ight, nor 1 ^oti- 
table enjoyment." " They tell you, sir, that 
your dignity is tied to it. — I kr.ow not how it 
happens, but this dignity of yours is a terrible 



84 



incumbrance to you ; for it has of late been ever 
at war with your interest, your equity, and every 
idea of your policy. Show the thing you contend 
for to be reason ; show it to be common sense ; 
show it to be the means of attaining some useful 
end, and then I am content to allow it what 
dignity you please. But what dignity is derived 
from the perseverance in absurdity is more than 
ever I could discern." 

I quote the following passages, not to prove 
similarity of style, but to show, that both writers 
frequently drew their metaphors from the same, or 
similar sources. " This vermin of court reporters, 
(says Burke) when they are forced into day upon 
one point, are sure to burrow in another ; but they 
shall have no refuge : I will make them bolt out of 
all their holes." " I have, you see, sir, (says Junius) 
not meddled with his private character; (the 
Duke of Grafton's) I leave that for him to earth in 
whenever he is hard run, according to the laudable 
example of his chancellor of the exchequer." 
(Vol. iii. p. 9,5.) " I should be ashamed (says 
Mr. Burke) to make myself one of a noisy mul- 
titude to halloo and hearten them into doubtful 
and dangerous courses." " If all the world 
joined them in a full cry against rebellion," &c, 
" I departed from those limits in pursuit of a 



principle ; and following the same game in its 
doubles, I am brought into those limits again." 
These are taken from the third volume of Burke's 
works. It would be easy for me to multiply 
instances were it necessary. The following, 
among others, occur in Junius. " At any rate 
the broker should be run down. That at least is 
«lut to his master." " If no prescription is 
pleadable against the crown, and if the treasury, 
without hearing, is suffered, at pleasure, to halloo 
an informer at your estate" &c. " The old Fox 
has been unkennelled, but is ashamed of his stink- 
ing tail." This is the first sentence of a letter, 
which he addressed to the Right Hon. Edward 
Woton. 

The following extract from the speech on 
American taxation is in the manner of Junius. 
" If you do not fall in with the motion, then 
secure something to fight for consistent in theory 
and valuable in practice. If you must employ 
your strength, employ it to uphold you in some 
honourable right, or some profitable wrong. If 
you are apprehensive, that the concession re- 
commended to you, though proper, should be a 
means of drawing on you farther, but unreason- 
ihle claims; why then employ your force in 



86 



supporting that reasonable concession against 
those unreasonable demands." 

Towards the conclusion of his letter to the 
sheriffs of Bristol, Mr. Burke, whilst combating 
an opinion at that time industriously circulated 
by the court party, that all public men were 
alike, all equally venal and corrupt, has some 
remarks, which coincide pretty closely with the 
opinions maintained in one of the letters of 
Junius. " The age unquestionably produces 
daring profligates and insidious hypocrites. What 
then ? Am I not to avail myself of whatever good 
is to be found in the woi^ld, because of the mixture 
of evil that will always be in it? The smallness 
of the quantity in currency only heightens the 
value 1111 . They, who raise suspicions on the good, 
on account of the behaviour of bad men, are of 
the party of the latter." " I am aware, that the 
age is not what we all wish. But I am sure, that 
the only means of checking its precipitate de- 
generacy, is heartily to concur with whatever is 
the best in our time ; and to have some more 
correct standard of judging what that best is, 

* In his Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs I find the 
following remark, partly to the same effect. " It is not worth 
our while to discuss, like sophisters, whether, in no case, 
some evil, for the sake of some benefit, is to be tolerated." 



87 

than the transient and uncertain favour of a 
court. If once we are able to find, and can pre- 
vail on ourselves to strengthen an union of such 
men, whatever accidentally becomes indisposed 
to ill-exercised power, even by the ordinary 
operation of human passions, must join with that 
society, and cannot long be joined without in 
some degree assimilating to it. Virtue will catch, 
as well as vice, by contact; and the public stock 
of honest manly principle will daily accumulate. 
We are not too nicely to scrutinize motives^ as long 
as action is irreproachable. It is enough, (and 
for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out 
its infamy to convicted guilt and declared apos- 
tesy." (Works, vol. iii. p. 201.) The following 
extracts are taken from the letter, in which 
Junius recommends union among the friends of 
the people. It is dated on the 5th of October, 
1771. " Let us try whether these fatal dissen- 
sions may not yet be reconciled : or, if that be 
impracticable, let us guard at least against the 
worst effects of division ; and endeavour to per- 
suade these furious partisans, if they will not 
consent to draw together, to be separately useful 
to that cause which they all pretend to be at- 
tached to." " Let us employ these men in 
whatever departments their various abilities are 
suited to, and as much to the advantage of 



88 



the common cause, as their different inclinations 
will permit. They cannot serve us without es- 
sentially serving themselves." " As for differ* 
ences of opinion upon speculative questions, if 
we wait till they are reconciled, the action of 
human affairs must be suspended for ever. But 
neither are we to look for perfection in any one 
man, nor for agreement among many" " Let us 
take mankind as they are : let us distribute the 
virtues and abilities of individuals according to 
the offices they affect ; and when they quit the 
service, let us endeavour to supply their places 
with better men than we have lost." " I will 
not reject a bill, which tends to confine par- 
liamentary privilege within reasonable bounds, 
though it should be stolen from the house of 
Cavendish, and introduced by Mr. Onslow. 
The features of the infant are a proof of the 
descent, and vindicate the noble birth from the 
baseness of the adoption. I willingly accept of a 
sarcasm from colonel Barre, or a simile from 
Mr. Burke. Even the silent vote of Mr. Cal- 
craft is worth reckoning in a division. What 
though he riots in the plunder of the army, and 
has only determined to be a patriot, when he 
could not be a peer ? Let us profit by the assist- 
ance of such men while they are with us; and 
place them, if it be possible, in the post of danger 



89 

to prevent desertion." " We should not generally 
reject the friendship, or services of any man, be- 
cause he differs from us in a particular opinion. 
This will not appear a superfluous caution, if we 
observe the ordinary conduct of mankind. In 
public affairs, there is the least chance of a per- 
fect concurrence of sentiment, or inclination j 
yet every man is able to contribute something 
to the common stock, and no man's contribution 
should be rejected. If individuals have no virtue, 
their vices may be of use to us. I care not with 
what principle the new-born patriot is animated, 
if the measures he supports are beneficial to the 
community. The nation is interested in his con- 
duct ; his motives are his own." The coincidence 
of opinion in these passages is so manifest, as to 
require no comment, or illustration. 

The introduction of these occasional speci- 
mens of a coincidence in thinking, besides their 
direct tendency to prove identity of authorship, 
will serve, in some measure, to lessen the tedious- 
ness of the detail, into which I have deemed it 
necessary to enter on the subject of style. To 
this, however, I must again return. — " These 
artifices of a desperate cause are, at this time, 
spread abroad, with incredible care, in every part 
of the town, from the highest to the lowest com- 



90 



panies ; as if the industry of the circulation were 
to make amends for the absurdity of the report." 
The following specimens are taken from his 
speech on American conciliation. " I would, 
sir, recommend to your serious consideration, 
whether it be prudent to form a rule for punish- 
ing people, not on their own acts, but on your 
conjectures f Surely it is preposterous at the very 
best. It is not justifying your anger, by their 
misconduct ; but it is converting your ill-wilt into 
their delinquency''' (Vol. iii. p. 80). " In this 
assurance my mind most perfectly acquiesces ; 
and I confess, I feel not. the least alarm, from the 
discontents which are to arise, from putting people 
at their ease; nor do I apprehend the destruction 
of this empire, from giving, by an act of free 
grace and indulgence, to two millions of my fel- 
low citizens, some share of those rights, upon 
which I have always been taught to value my- 
self." (Ibid. p. 112). "Permit me to observe, 
that the use of force alone is but temporary. It 
may subdue for a moment ; but it does not re- 
move the necessity of subduing again ; and a 
nation is not governed, which is perpetually to 
be conquered. My next objection is its uncer- 
tainty. Terror is not always the effect of force ; 
and an armament is not a victory. If you do 
not succeed, you are without resource ; for, con- 



91 

filiation failing, force remains; but, force failing, 
no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power 
and authority are sometimes bought by kindness; 
but they can never be begged as alms, by an 
impoverished and defeated violence." " Lastly, 
we have no sort of experience in favour of force, 
pj .in instrument in the rule of our colonies. 
Their growth and their utility have been owing 
to methods altogether different. Our ancient in- 
dulgence has been said to be pursued to a fault. 
It may be so. But we know, if feeling is evidence, 
that our fault was more tolerable, than our at- 
tempt to mend it ; and our sin far more salutary, 
than our penitence." (Ibid. p. 47-8). "To restore 
Order and repose to an empire so great and so 
distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an 
undertaking, that would ennoble the flights of 
the highest genius, and obtain pardon for the 
efforts of the meanest understanding." (Ibid, 
p. 90). " Great and acknowledged force is not 
impaired, either in effect, or in opinion, by an 
unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power 
may offer peace, with honour and with safety. 
Such an offer from such a power will be attributed 
to magnanimity. But the concessions of the 
peak are the concessions of fear. When such a 
me is disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his 
superior ; and he loses for ever that time ami 



those chances, which, as they happen to all men, 
are the strength and resources of all inferior 
power." (Ibid. p. 34). " It will show you, that 
it is not to be considered as one of those minima, 
which are out of the eye and consideration of the 
law ; not a paltry excrescence of the state ; not 
a mean dependant, who may be neglected zvith 
little damage, and provoked zvith little danger. 
It will prove, that some degree of care and cau- 
tion is required in the handling of such an object; 
it will show, that you ought not, in reason, to 
trifle with so large a mass of the interests and 
feelings of the human race. You could at no 
time do so without guilt j and be assured you 
zvill not be able to do it long with impunity." 
(Ibid. p. 36). (i For, in order to prove, that the 
Americans have no right to their liberties, we are 
every day endeavouring to subvert the maxims, 
which preserve the whole spirit of our own. To 
prove, that the Americans ought not to be free, 
we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom 
itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry ad- 
vantage over them in debate, without attacking 
some of those principles, for which our ancestors 
have shed their blood." (Ibid. p. 61). But, when 
I consider that we have colonies for no purpose 
but to be serviceable to us, it seems to my poor 
understanding a little preposterous, to make them 



93 

unserviceable, in order to keep them obedient. 
It is, in truth, nothing more, than the old, and, 
as I thought, exploded problem of tyranny, 
which proposes to beggar its subjects into sub- 
mission. But, remember* when you have com- 
pleted your system of impoverishment, that na- 
ture still proceeds in her ordinary course; that 
discontent will increase with misery; and that 
there are critical moments in the fortune of all 
states, zvhen they, who are too weak to contribute 
to your prosperity, may be strong enough to 
complete your ruin" (Ibid. p. 65). " The army, 
by which we must govern in their place, would 
be far more chargeable to us ; not quite so ef- 
fectual : and, perhaps, in the end, full as difficult 
to be kept in obedience." (Ibid. p. 67). " It is 
sometimes as hard to persuade slaves to be free, 
as it is to compel freemen to be slaves ; and, in 
this auspicious scheme, we should have both these 
pleasing tasks on our hands, at once. But, when 
we talk of enfranchisement, do we not perceive, 
that the American master may enfranchise too ; 
and arm servile hands in defence of freedom? A 
measure to which other people have had recourse 
more than once, and not without success, in a 
desperate situation of their affairs." (Ibid. p. 67). 
" An offer of freedom from England would come 
rather oddly, shipped to them in an African 



94 

vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of 
Virginia, or Carolina, with a cargo of three hun- 
dred Angola Negroes. It would be curious to 
see the Guinea captain attempting at the same 
instant to publish his proclamation of liberty, 
and to advertise his sale of slaves." (Ibid. p. 68). 
" I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest 
public bodies, entrusted with magistracies of 
great authority and dignity, and charged with 
the safety of their fellow-citizens, upon the very 
same title that I am. / really think, that, for 
wise men, this is not judicious ; for sober men, not 
decent j for minds tinctured with humanity, not 
mild and merciful" (Ibid. p. 69). " Will not 
this, sir, very soon teach the provinces to make 
no distinctions on their part ? Will it not teach 
them, that the government, against which a claim 
of liberty is tantamount to high-treason, is a go- 
vernment, to wliich submission is equivalent to 
slavery? It may not always be quite convenient 
to impress dependent communities with such an 
idea." (Ibid. p. 70). " In this situation let us 
seriously and cooly ponder. What is it we have 
got by all our menaces, which have been many 
and ferocious ? What advantage have we derived 
from the penal laws we have passed, and which, 
for the time, have been severe and numerous? 
What advances have we made towards our object, 



/ijl the sending of a force, which, by land and 
sea, is no contemptible strength ? Has the dis- 
order abated? Nothing less. — When I see things 
in this situation, after such confident hopes, bold 
promises, and active exertions, I cannot, for my 
life, avoid a suspicion, that the plan itself is not 
correct hi right." (Ibid. p. 7^). " The question 
with me is not, zvhether you have a right to render 
your people miserable ; but zvhether it is not your 
interest to make them happy. It is not, what a 
lawyer tells me, I may do; but what humanity, 
reason, and justice, tell me I ought to do. Is a 
politic act the worse for being a generous one? 
Is no concession proper, but that which is made 
from your want of right to keep what you grant? 
Or does it lessen the grace, or dignity of relaxing 
in the exercise of an odious claim, because you 
nave your evidence-room full of titles, and your 
magazines stuffed with arms to enforce them? Of 
what avail are they, when the reason of the thing 
tells me, that the assertion of my title is the loss of 
my suit; and that I could do nothing, but wound 
myself by the use of my own weapons?" (Ibid. 
|>. ?•>). " Then, sir, you keep up revenue laws, 
which are mischievous, in order to preserve trade 
laws, that are useless. Such is the wisdom of our 
plan in both its members. They are separately 
I up as of no value, and yet one is always to 



9b 

be defended for the sake of the other." (Ibid, 
p. 78). " But the colonies will go farther. — - 
Alas! alas! when will this speculating againsfr 
fact and reason end? What ivill quiet these 
panic fears, ivhich we entertain of the hostile 
effect of a conciliatory conduct ? Is it true, that 
no case can exist, in which it is proper for the 
sovereign to accede to the desires of his discon- 
tented subjects? Is there any thing peculiar in 
this case to make a rule for itself? Is all au- 
thority of course lost, when it is not pushed to 
the extreme ? Is it a certain maxim, that, the 
fewer causes of dissatisfaction are left by govern- 
ment, the more the subject will be inclined to 
resist and rebel?" (Ibid. p. 80). " The question 
now, on all this accumulated matter, is — Whether 
you will choose to abide by a profitable ex- 
perience, or a mischievous theory ; whether you 
choose to build on imagination, or fact ; whether 
you prefer enjoyment, or hopes satisfaction in 
your subjects, or discontent?" (Ibid. p. 103) 
" The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, 
it was not, until after two hundred years, dis- 
covered, that, by an eternal law, Providence had 
decreed vexation to violence, and poverty to 
rapine. Your ancestors did, however, at length, 
open their eyes to the ill-husbandry of injustice. 
They found, that the tyranny of a free people 



97 

<_ould, of all tyrannies, the least be endured; 
and that laws made against an whole nation 
were not the most effectual methods for securing 
its obedience." (Ibid. p. 86). " All communica- 
tion is cut off between us, but this we know with 
certainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, 
we may reform ourselves. If measures of peace 
are necessary, they must begin somewhere ; and 
a conciliatory temper must precede and prepare 
exery plan of reconciliation. Nor do I conceive, 
that we suffer any thing, by thus regulating our 
own minds — we are not disarmed, by being dis- 
encumbered of our passions. Declaiming on 
rebellion never added a bayonet, or a charge of 
powder to your military force ; but I am afraid, 
that a lias been the means of taking up many 
muskets against you." (Ibid. p. 162). " It is no 
excuse for presumptuous ignorance, that it is 
directed by insolent passion. The poorest being 
that crawls the earth, contending to save itself 
from injustice and oppression, is an object re- 
spectable in the eyes of God and man. But I 
cannot conceive any existence under heaven, 
(which, in the depths of its wisdom, tolerates all 
sorts of things), that is more truly odious and 
disgusting, than an impotent helpless creature, 
without civil wisdom, or military skill, without a 
consciousness of any other qualification for power, 
o 



98 

but his servility to it, bloated with pride and ar- 
rogance, calling for battles, which he is not to 
fight, contending for a violent dominion, which 
he can never exercise, and satisfied to be himself 
mean and miserable, in order to render others 
contemptible and wretched." — " If you and I 
find our talents not of the great and ruling kind, 
our conduct, at least, is conformable to our fa- 
culties. No man's life pays the forfeit of our 
rashness. No desolate widow weeps tears of 
blood over our ignorance. Scrupulous and sober 
in a well-grounded distrust of ourselves, we would 
keep in the port of peace and security ; and, 
perhaps, in recommending to others something 
of the same diffidence, we should show ourselves 
more charitable to their welfare, than injurious to 
their abilities:' (Ibid. p. 156-7). 

Having undertaken to show, that Mr. Burke 
frequently wrote in the style and manner of 
Junius, I am of opinion, that I shall establish 
that point better, by making extracts from 
several of his writings, than I could do, were I to 
confine myself to a more partial and limited se- 
lection. This, I hope, will be a sufficent apology 
for the length, and tediousness of this deduction, 
at least to some of my readers ; but for the satis- 
faction of those, who may happen to be more 



99 

difficult to be pleased, I shall state here, that 
they may expect proofs of a more palpable kind 
in a subsequent part of this inquiry. In Mr. 
Burke's letter to Samuel Span, Esq. in April 
1778, I find the following passages, which have 
something of the manner of Junius — " If I had 
noJ considered the present resolutions merely as 
preparatory to better things, and as a means of 
jhov ing experimentally, that justice to others is 
not alzvays folly to ourselves, I should have con- 
tented myself with receiving them in a cold and 
•silent acquiescence." — " We cannot be insensible 
of the calamities, which have been brought upon 
this nation, by an obstinate adherence to narrow 
and restrictive plans of government. I confess, 
I cannot prevail on myself to take them up, pre- 
cisely at a time, when the most decisive experience 
has taught the rest of the world to lay them downy 
" I find that we are still disposed to talk at our 
Mid as if all things were to be regulated by 
our good pleasure. I should consider it as a 
fatal symptom, if, in our present distressed and 
adverse circumstances, we should persist in the 
rrrors which are natural only to prosperity. One 
<;u,iiol, indeed, sufficiently lament the conti- 
nuance of that spirit of delusion, by which, for a 
fctig time past, we have thought fit to measure 
"itr necessities by our inclinations. Moderation, 



100 



prudence, and equity are far more suitable to our 
condition, than loftiness and confidence and rigour. 
We are threatened by enemies of no small mag- 
nitude, whom, if we think fit, we may despise, 
as we have despised others ; but they are enemies, 
who can only cease to be truly formidable, by our 
entertaining a due respect for their power. Our 
danger will not be lessened by our shutting our 
eyes to it, nor will our force abroad be increased, 
by rendering ourselves feeble and divided at homey 

The following extract from Mr. Burke's speech 
on the civil list debt (in April, 1777) will, I think, 
be allowed, by good judges at least, to be strongly 
marked with the features of Junius. " They have 
plunged us into a dreadful war, which has already 
cost the nation twenty millions of money. They 
have severed the empire, destroyed our commerce, 
sunk the revenue, and given a mortal blow to 
public credit. We have lost thirteen flourishing 
and growing provinces, some of which were al- 
ready, in point of importance, if not of power, 
nearly equal to ancient kingdoms : and we are 
now engaged in a destructive and helpless attempt 
to recover, by force, what our folly and violence 
have lost. Is this then a season, when we shall 
be under a necessity of taxing every gentleman's 
house in England, even to the smallest domestic 



101 

accommodation, and to accumulate burden upon 
burden on a people already sinking under the 
load, to come and tell us, that we have not hitherto 
made a provision for the crown adequate to its 
grandeur, and that we must now find new funds 
for the increase of its splendour? Is the real 
lustre zihich it has unhappily lost, to be supplied 
by the false glare of profusion? And the ostensiir 
expenses of government to increase in a due pro- 
portion to its poverty and weakness? It will be 
a new discovery in the policy of nations, that the 
only means of replacing the loss of half an empire 
is by the boundless prodigality of the remainder" 
Eight years before Mr. Burke published the fol- 
lowing remarks on this topic: "There is an opi- 
nion universal, that these revenues (the King's 
foreign ones) produce something not inconsider- 
able, clear of all charges and establishments. This 
produce the people do not believe to be hoarded, 
nor perceive to be spent. It is accounted for in 
the only manner it can, by supposing, that it is 
drawn away, for the support of that court fac- 
tion, which, whilst it distresses the nation, im- 
poverishes the Prince in every one of his re- 
sources." * * * He proceeds to remark, how little 
advantage the Monarch has derived from this 
system of favouritism — " which, without magni- 
ficence, has sunk him into a state of unnatural 



102 



poverty; at the same time that he possessed ever j 
means of affluence, from ample revenues, both in 
this country and in other parts of his dominions." 
" Then what has the Crown, or the King, profit- 
ed by all this fine- wrought scheme ? Is he more 
rich, or more splendid, or more powerful, or more 
at his ease, by so many labours and contrivances? 
Have they not beggared his Exchequer, tarnished 
the splendour of his court, sunk his dignity, galled 
his feelings, and discomposed the whole order and 
happiness of his private life?"- — "Suppose then 
we were to ask, whether the King has been 
richer than his predecessors, in accumulated 
wealth, since the establishment of the plan of 
favouritism ? I believe it will be found, that the 
picture of royal indigence, which our court has 
presented until this year, has been tridy humiliat- 
ing; nor has it been relieved frbm this unseemly 
distress, but by means which have hazarded the 
affection of the people, and shaken the confidence 
of parliament. If the public treasures had been 
exhausted in magnificence and splendour, this 
distress would have been accounted for, and in 
some measure justified. Nothing would be more 
unworthy of this nation, than, with a mean and 
mechanical rule, to mete out the splendour of the 
crown. Indeed I have found very few persons 
disposed to so ungenerous a procedure ; but the 



103 

generality of people, it must be confessed, do feel 
a good deal mortified, when they compare the 
wants of the court with its expenses. They do 
not behold the cause of this distress in any part 
of the apparatus of royal magnificence. In all 
this they see nothing, but the operations of par si- 
7nony attended with all the consequences of profu- 
sion" (Thoughts on the Cause of the Present 
Discontents.) 

The opinions of Junius on the civil list debt, 
concur in general with those maintained by Mr. 
Burke. In one of his private letters to Mr. 
Wilkes (Sept. 7, 1771), I find these words : " The 
maimer in which the late debt upon the civil list 
was pretended to be incurred, and really paid, 
demands a particular examination. Never was 
there a more impudent outrage offered to a free 
people.''' The following passage on the same sub- 
ject occurs in his first public letter signed Junius: 
" As to the debt upon the civil list, the people 
of England expect, that it will not be paid with- 
out a strict inquiry how it was incurred. If it 
must be paid by parliament, let me advise the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer to think of some 
better expedient than a lottery. To support an 
expensive war, or in circumstances of absolute ne- 
cessity, a lottery may perhaps be allowable ; but, 



104 



besides that it is at all times the very worst way 
of raising money upon the people, I think it ill- 
becomes the royal dignity to have the debts of a 
king provided for, like the repairs of a country 
bridge, or a decayed hospital." In another of 
his letters (June 12, 1769) we find the following 
passage : " Has not Sir John Moore a pension of 
£500. a year? This may probably be an ac- 
quittance of favours upon the turf ; but is it pos- 
sible for a minister to offer a grosser outrage to a 
nation, which has so very lately cleared away the 
beggary of the civil list, at the expense of more 
than half a million ?" In his Preface he thtis ad- 
dresses the King, " With the greatest unappro- 
priated revenue of any prince in Europe, have tve 
not seen you reduced to such vile and sordid dis- 
tresses, as would have conducted any other man 
to a prison f" And again — " A prince (whose 
piety and self-denial, one would think, might 
secure him from such a multitude of worldly ne- 
cessities), with an annual revenue of near a mil- 
lion sterling, unfortunately wants money. The 
navy of England, by an equally strange concur- 
rence of unforeseen circumstances, (though not 
quite so unfortunately for his Majesty) is in equal 
want of timber." " It happened, however, very 
luckily for the privy purse, that one of the above 
wants promised fair to supply the other. Our 



105 

religious, benevolent, generous Sovereign has no 
objection to selling his oivn timber, to his own 
admiralty, to repair his own ships, nor to putting 
the money into his own pocket." (Junius, vol. ii. 
p. 3 c 25-6.) With all candid scholars, the present, 
as well as those specimens of a coincidence in 
opinion between both these writers, which I have 
already mentioned, will have due weight. What 
influence they are likely to have with those critics, 
who think, that Burke could not write like Junius, 
I know not, nor is it worth my while to conjec- 
ture ; for obstinacy is not likely to be easily con- 
vinced. But we know, that some would not be 
convinced, even though one should arise from the 
dead. 

The following passage occurs in one of his 
letters in reply to Mr. Home : " He (Mr. Home) 
talks to us, in high terms, of the gallant feats he 
would have performed, if he had lived in the last 
century. The unhappy Charles could hardly have 
escaped them. But living princes have a claim to 
his attachment and respect. Upon these terms 
there is no danger in being a patriot." *** 
"Grievances like these were the foundation of 
the rebellion in the last century, and, if I under- 
stand Mr. Home, they would, at that period, 
have justified him to his own mind, in deliberately 



106 

attacking the life of his Sovereign." *** "If 
propositions like these cannot be fairly maintain- 
ed, I do not see how he can reconcile it to his 
conscience, not to act immediately with the same 
freedom, with which he speaks." Some of my 
readers, I am persuaded, will not be unwilling to 
agree with me in thinking, that the above extract 
is written precisely in the same spirit with the 
following passage from Burke's Thoughts on the 
Cause of the Present Discontents : " Few are the 
partisans of departed tyranny ; and to be a Whig, 
on the business of an hundred years ago, is very 
consistent with every advantage of present servility. 
This retrospective ivisdom and historical patriotism 
are things of wonderfid convenience ; and serve 
admirably to reconcile the old quarrel bettveen 
speculation and practice. Many a stern repub- 
lican, after gorging himself with a full feast of 
admiration of the Grecian commonwealths and of 
our true Saxon constitution, and discharging all 
the splendid bile of his virtuous indignation on 
King John, and King James, sits down perfectly 
satisfied to the coarsest work and homeliest job 
of the day he lives in." 

In a subsequent part of the same tract, Mr. 
Burke, speaking of the undue influence of the 
Crown on the House of Commons, says, " It must 



107 



always be the wish of an unconstitutional states- 
man, that an House of Commons, who are en- 
tirely dependant upon him, should have every 
right of the people entirely dependent on their 
pleasure. // zvas soon discovered, that the forms 
of a free, and the ends of an arbitrary government, 

things not. altogether incompatible ." And 
again, " With such a degree of acquiescence (on 
the part of parliament), any measure of any 
court might well be deemed thoroughly secure, 
The capital objects, and by much the most flat- 
tering characteristics of arbitrary power, would 
be obtained." " The power of discretionary dis- 
qualification by one law of parliament, and the 

-ity of paying every debt of the civil list by 
another law of parliament, if suffered to pass un- 
noticed, must establish such a fund of rewards 
and terrors, as will make parliament the best ap- 
pendage and support of arbitrary power, that ever 
was invented by the wit of man." Junius, in his 
Dedication, has a similar doctrine : " This in- 
fluence answers every purpose of arbitrary power 
to the crown, ivith an expense and oppression to 
the people, which would be unnecessary in an arbi- 
trary government. The best of our ministers 
find it the easiest and most compendious mode 
of conducting the King's affairs; and all minis- 
ters have a general interest in adhering to a sys- 



108 

tern, which, of itself, is sufficient to support them 
m office, without any assistance from personal 
virtue, popularity, labour, abilities or experience. 
It promises every gratification to avarice and 
ambition, and secures impunity." 

If any scholar takes the trouble of comparing 
candidly and fully all that is said in various parts 
of the works of Burke and of Junius, on the undue 
influence of the crown, through the agency of a 
secret and irresponsible cabal, or court faction, I 
think he will be satisfied, that they were all written 
by the same author. The part of Mr. Burke's 
works, to which I particularly allude (for it is the 
fullest on the subject), is his Thoughts on the Cause 
of the Present Discontents. Some of the passages 
in Junius, which I would recommend for the sub- 
ject of this comparison, will be found in the fol- 
lowing parts, among others (pp. 9, 10, 11, 15, 17, 
25, 52, 99, 100), of the third volume. (See also 
vol. i. pp. 12, 166.) The following words from 
another part of the third volume (p. 371) corres- 
pond fully with the opinions of Mr. Burke : " He 
(the King) abolished no distinctions but those 
which are essential to the safety of the constitu- 
tion. King, lords, and commons, which should 
for ever stand clear of each other, were soon 
melted down into one common mass of power, 



109 



while equal care was taken to draw a line of 
separation between the legislature and the peo- 
ple, and more particularly between the represen- 
tative and the constituent body of the commons." 
(See pp. 24-5, of this Inquiry.) 

In an earlier part of his Dedication, Junius 
says, " If an honest, and, I may truly affirm, a 
laborious zeal for the public service has given 
me any weight in your esteem, let me exhort and 
conjure you never to suffer an invasion of your 
political constitution, however minute the instance 
may appear, to pass by, without a determined, 
ering resistance. One precedent creates an- 
other. They soon accumulate and constitute law. 
What yesterday was fact, to-day is doctrine. 
Examples are supposed to justify the most danger- 
ous measures, and where they do not suit exactly, 
the defect is supplied by analogy." Burke, in 
same spirit says, that " any new powers ex- 
ercised in the House of Lords, or in the House of 
Commons, or by the Crown, ought certainly to 
excite the vigilant and anxious jealousy of a free 
people. Even a new and unprecedented course 
of action in the whole legislature, without great 
and evident reason, may be a subject of just 
uneasiness." 



110 



On the subject of the remonstrance, made at 
Paris by Lord Rochford, on the intended invasion 
of Corsica by the French, Junius says, " If, in- 
stead of disowning Lord Shelburne, the British 
court had interposed with dignity and firmness, 
you know, my Lord, that Corsica would never 
have been invaded. The French saw the weak- 
ness of a distracted ministry, and were justified in 
treating you with contempt. They would proba- 
bly have yielded in the first instance, rather than 
hazard a rupture with this country; but, being 
once engaged, they cannot retreat without disho- 
nour." Mr. Burke agrees exactly with Junius on 
this topic ; but, as the passage is too long, I shall 
extract only a part of it, referring the reader for 
the whole to the Thoughts on the Cause of the Pre- 
sent Discontents. " If, by any chance, the mi- 
nisters, who stand before the curtain, possess or 
affect any spirit, it makes little or no impression. 
Foreign courts and ministers, who were among 
the first to discover and to profit by this inven- 
tion of the Double Cabinet, attend very little to 
their remonstrances." * * * "If one of those 
ministers officially takes up a business with spirit, 
it serves only the better to signalize the meanness 
of the rest, and the discord of them all. His 
colleagues in office are in haste to shake him off, 



Ill 



ami to disclaim the whole of his proceedings. Of 
this nature was that astonishing transaction, in 
which Lord Rochford, our ambassador at Paris, 
remonstrated against the attempt upon Corsica, 
in consequence of a direct authority from Lord 
Shelburne. This remonstrance the French mi- 
nister treated with the contempt that was natural; 
as he was assured, from the ambassador of his 
court to ours, that these orders of Lord Shel- 
burne were not supported by the rest of the ad- 
ministration. Lord Rochford, a man of spirit, 
could not endure this situation*." *** "By this 
transaction the condition of our court lay ex- 
posed in all its nakedness. Our office corres- 
pondence has lost all pretence to authenticity; 
British policy is brought into derision in those 
nations, that awhile ago trembled at the power 
of our arms, whilst they looked up with confidence 
to the equity, firmness and candour, which shone 
in all our negociations." 

Junius maintains the right of the people to 
interfere directly, whenever they find their inte- 
rest abandoned by their representatives : " Whe- 



A.8 a coincidence of opinion, it deserves to be remarked 

here, that Junius speaks, with respect, of the abilities and 

official experience of Lord Rochford. (See vol. i. p. 57 ; and 

Mineous Letters, Mo. 49, vol. iii. pp. 177, S, 'J, and 186. 



1 152 



ther the remonstrance be, or be not injurious to 
parliament, is the very question between parlia- 
ment and the people ; and such a question as 
cannot be decided by the assertion of a third 
party, however respectable. That the petition- 
ing for the dissolution of parliament is irrecon- 
cileable with the principles of the constitution, 
is a new doctrine. His Majesty, perhaps, has 
not been informed, that the House of Commons 
themselves have, by a formal resolution, admitted 
it to be the right of the subject/' " The City of 
London has not desired the King to assume a 
power placed in other hands. * * * They solicit 
their Sovereign to exert that constitutional autho- 
rity, which the laws have vested in him, for the 
benefit of his subjects. They call upon him to 
make use of his lawful prerogative, in a case, 
which our laws evidently supposed might hap- 
pen, since they have provided for it by trusting 
the sovereign with a discretionary power to dis- 
solve the parliament. This request, I am conn- 
dent, will be supported by remonstrances from 
all parts of the kingdom." *** "The City of 
London have given an example, which, I doubt 
not, will be followed by the whole kingdom. The 
noble spirit of the metropolis is the life-blood of 
the state, collected at the heart : from that point 
it circulates, with health and vigour, through 



113 

every artery of the constitution. The time is 
come, when the body of the English people must 
assert their own cause: conscious of their strength, 
and animated by a sense of their duty, they will 
not surrender their birth-right to ministers, to 
parliaments, or kings." (See vol. ii. letter 37.) 
Such also is the doctrine of Mr. Burke : " I see 
no other way for the preservation of a decent at- 
tention to puhlic interest in the representatives, 
but the interposition of the body of the people itself, 
whenever it shall appear, by some flagrant and 
notorious act, by some capital innovation, that 
these representatives are going to overleap the 
fences of the law, and to introduce an arbitrary 
power. This interposition is a most unpleasant 
remedy. But, if it is a legal remedy, it is in- 
tended on some occasion to be used ; to be used 
then only, when it is evident, that nothing else 
can hold the constitution to its true principles." 
u It is not in Parliament alone that the remedy for 
parliamentary disorders can be completed : hardly, 
indeed, can it begin there. Until a confidence 
in government is established, the people ought to 
be excited to a more strict and detailed attention 
to the conduct of their representatives." (Thoughts 
on the Cause of the Present Discontents.) The 
following remarks on the same subject may be 
seen in the address of Junius to the King : " Thr 

Q 



114 



English nation declare they are grossly injured 
by their representatives, and solicit your Majesty 
to exert your lawful prerogative, and give them 
an opportunity of recalling a trust, which they 
find has been scandalously abused. You are not 
to be told, that the power of the House of Com- 
mons is not original, but delegated to them for 
the welfare of the people, from whom they re- 
ceived it. A question of right arises between 
the constituent and the representative body. By 
what authority shall it be decided ? Will your 
Majesty interfere in a question, in which you have 
properly no immediate concern ? It would be a 
step equally odious and unnecessary. Shall the 
Lords be called upon to determine the rights and 
privileges of the Commons ? They cannot do it 
without a flagrant breach of the constitution. Or 
will you refer it to the Judges ? They have often 
told your ancestors, that the law of parliament is 
above them. What party then remains, but to 
leave it to the people to determine for themselves? 
They alone are injured j and, since there is no 
superior power, to which the cause can be refer- 
red, they alone ought to determine." 

Junius, in the same letter, addresses the King 
in these words, " The fortune, which made you a 
king, forbad you to have a friend. It is a law of 



115 

nature, which cannot be violated with impunity. 
The mistaken prince, who looks for friendship, 
will find a favourite, and in that favourite the 
ruin of his affairs." Mr. Burke, alluding to the 
effects of court-favouritism, the very same year, 
and to the mortifying condescensions and humi- 
liations, to which the King was exposed by that 
ijtotem, says — "Indeed, it is a law of nature, 
that whoever is necessary to what we have made 
our object, is sure in some way, or in some time 
or other, to become our master." 

Alluding to the proceedings of the House of 
Commons, in the case of the Middlesex election, 
Junius says to the King, " I do not mean to per- 
plex you with a tedious argument upon a subject 
already so discussed, that inspiration could hardly 
throw a new light upon it" On the same sub- 
ject Mr. Burke has the following remarks : " The 
arguments, upon which this claim was founded 
and combated, are not my business here. Never 
has a subject been more amply and more learnedly 
handled; nor, upon one side, in my opinion, more 
satisfactorily. They, zvho are not convinced by 
what is already written, would not receive convic- 
tion, though one arose from the dead. I too have 
thought on this subject: but my purpose here is 
only to consider it as a part of the project of 



116 



government; to observe on the motives which led 
to it ; and to trace its political consequences." 

Mr. Burke, in his speech on American taxa- 
tion, says, " These excellent and trusty servants 
of the King, justly fearful lest they themselves 
should have lost all credit with the world, bring 
out the image of their gracious Sovereign from the 
inmost and most sacred shrine, and they pawn him 
as a security for their promises." And imme- 
diately afterwards, after quoting part of Lord 
Botetourt's speech to the Assembly of Virginia, 
adds the following words : " A glorious and true 
character! which (since we suffer his ministers 
with impunity to answer for his ideas of taxation) 
we ought to make it our business to enable his 
Majesty to preserve in all its lustre. Let him 
have character, since ours is no more ! Let some 
part of government be kept in respect." The 
character, to which he alludes, is that given of 
the King in the following part of Lord Botetourt's 
speech. '? That satisfaction which I have been 
authorised to promise this day, by the confiden- 
tial servants of our gracious Sovereign, who, to 
my certain knowledge, rates his honour so high, 
that he would rather part with his crown, than 
preserve it by deceit." There are many parts of 
Junius written in the very same spirit •„ and we 



117 

know, that he frequently attacked the ministry, 
for bringing forward the King too often, with a 
view of sheltering themselves beneath his cha- 
racter. The reader will find proofs enough of 
this in his letters of the 19th of March and 3d of 
April, 1/70. "I would separate, as much as 
possible, the King's personal character and be- 
haviour from the acts of the present government." 
And, alluding to the harsh answer given by the 
King to the remonstrance of the City of London 
— "This distinction, however, is only true with 
respect to the measure itself. The consequences 
of it reach beyond the minister, and materially 
afiYct his Majesty's honour." "It has not been 
usual in this country, at least since the daj's of 
Charles the First, to see the Sovereign personally 
at variance, or engaged in a direct altercation 
with his subjects. Acts of grace and indulgence 
are wisely appropriated to him, and should con- 
stantly be performed by himself. He never should 
appear but in an amiable light to his subjects." 
" Measures of greater severity may, indeed, in 
some circumstances be necessary; but the minis- 
ter, who advises, should take the execution and 
odium of them entirely upon himself. He not 
only betrays his master, but violates the spirit of 
'lie English constitution, when he exposes the 
chief magistrate to the personal hatred, or con- 



118 



tempt of his subjects." "The reputation of pub- 
lic measures depends upon the minister, who is 
responsible, not upon the King, whose private 
opinions are not supposed to have any weight 
against the advice of his council, whose personal 
authority should, therefore, never be interposed 
in public affairs.'" The remainder of the para- 
graph deserves to be read, but it is too long for 
transcription. The following is also in the same 
spirit : "T do not mean to express the smallest 
anxiety for the minister's reputation. He acts 
separately for himself, and the most shameful in- 
consistency may perhaps be no disgrace to him. 
But when the Sovereign, who represents the ma- 
jesty of the state, appears in person, his dignity 
should be supported. The occasion should be 
important ; the plan well considered ; the execu- 
tion steady and consistent. My zeal for his 
Majesty's real honour compels me to assert, that 
it has been too much the system of the present reign 
to introduce him personally, either to act for, or 
to defend his servants. They persuade him to do 
what is properly their business, and desert him in 
the midst of it. Yet this is an inconvenience, to 
which he must for ever be exposed, while he 
adheres to a ministry divided among themselves, 
or unequal in credit and ability to the great task 
they have undertaken. Instead of reserving the 



119 

interposition of the royal personage, as the last 
resource of government, their weakness obliges 
them to apply it to every ordinary occasion, and 
to render it cheap and common in the opinion 
of the people. Instead of supporting their master, 
they look to him for support; and, for the emolu- 
ment of remaining one day more in office, care 
not how much his sacred character is prostituted 
and dishonoured." 

If the reader will compare a part of the last 
private letter from Junius to Mr. Woodfall, with 
some remarks made by Mr. Burke, towards the 
conclusion of his letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol 
(vol. iii. p. 202), I think he will be able to trace 
a similarity of thinking in both. For the sake of 
brevity I decline quoting either. The reader 
may also find, in an earlier part of this Inquiry, 
extracts from both of a similar tendency. 

Those, who have read the new edition in par- 
ticular, must remember, how often and how se- 
verely Lords Camden and Chatham were attack- 
ed by Junius for maintaining, that there were 
occasions in which the crown had a right, and 
was vested with a power, to dispense with the 
laws. In this opinion he agrees with Mr. Burke, 
who says in his speech at Bristol, in 17S0, " For 



120 

very obvious reasons you cannot trust the crown 
with a dispensing power over any of your laws" 

The spirit of the following remarks, taken from 
the Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discon- 
tentSy is very like some parts of one of the 
letters of Junius to Mr. Wilkes. " The next 
favourite remedy (says Mr. Burke) is a place-bill. 
The same principle guides in both ; I mean the 
opinion, which is entertained by many of the in- 
fallibility of laws and regulations in the cure of 
public distempers. Without being as unreason- 
ably doubtful, as many are unwisely confident, I 
will only say, that this also is a matter very well 
worthy of serious and mature reflection." *** 
" It is no inconsiderable part of wisdom to know, 
how much of an evil ought to be tolerated ; lest, 
by attempting a degree of purity impracticable 
in degenerate times and manners, instead of cut- 
ting off the subsisting ill-practices, new corrup- 
tions might be produced for the concealment and 
security of the old." (t A restoration of the right 
of free election is a preliminary indispensable to 
every other reformation. What alterations ought 
afterwards to be made in the constitution, is a 
matter of deep and difficult research." The 
reader may easily find many passages of a similar 
nature in Mr. Burke's works. The following ex- 



121 



tract from his speech on American conciliation, 
is in the same spirit : " Although there are some 
amongst us who think our constitution wants 
many improvements, to make it a complete sys- 
tem of liberty, perhaps none, who are of that 
opinion, would think it right to aim at such im- 
provement, by disturbing his country, and risk- 
in- every thing that is dear to him. In every 
arduous enterprise, we consider what we are to 
lose, as well as what we are to gain; and the 
more and better stake of liberty every people 
possess, the less they will hazard in a vain attempt 
to make it more. These are the cords of man. 
Man acts from adequate motives relative to his 
interest; and not on metaphysical speculations. 
Aristotle, the great master of reasoning, cautions 
us, and with great weight and propriety, against 
this species of delusive geometrical accuracy in 
moral arguments, as the most fallacious of all 
sophistry." If we compare these passages and that 
part of the Thoughts on the Causes of the Pre- 
sent Discontents, from which the former of them 
are taken, with a letter of Junius to Mr. Wilkes, 
of the 7th of September, 1771, it will not, I 
think, be difficult to find some similarity between 
both. The following extracts are from parts of 
that letter : of a place-bill, Junius says, " Can 
any man in his senses affirm, that, as things art; 



122 

now constituted in this country, it is possible to 
exterminate corruption f Do you seriously think 
it possible to carry through both houses such a 
place-bill as you describe in the fifth article ? 
When you talk of contracts and lottery tickets, 
do you think that any human law can really pre- 
vent their being distributed and accepted?" "That 
the people are not equally and fully represented 
is unquestionable But let us take care what we 
attempt: we may demolish the venerable fabric 
we intend to repair s and where is the strength 
and the virtue to erect a better in its stead?" 
" As to cutting away the rotten boroughs, &c, 
I own I have both doubts and apprehensions, in 
regard to the remedy you propose. I shall be 
charged, perhaps, with an unusual want of poli- 
tical intrepidity, when I honestly confess to you, 
that I am startled at the idea of so extensive an 
amputation." "When all your instruments of 
amputation are prepared; when the unhappy 
patient lies bound at your feet, without the pos- 
sibility of resistance, by what infallible rule will 
you direct the operation? When you propose to 
cut away the rotten parts, can you tell us what 
parts are perfectly sound? Are there any cer- 
tain limits, in fact or theory, to inform you, at 
what point you must stop,— at what point the 
mortification ends ? To a man, so capable 



123 



of observation and reflection as you are, it is un- 
necessary to say all that might be said upon the 
subject." These are not the only instances, in 
which Burke and Junius declare themselves hos- 
tile to the views of those, who expressed a wish 
to innovate upon the constitution, with a view to 
its improvement or reformation. In a subsequent 
letter (September the. 18th, 1771) to Mr. Wilkes, 
and in answer to some remarks by him on annual 
parliaments, Junius says, " The question is not 
what is best in theory, but what is most expedient 
in practice. You labour to carry the constitution 
to a point of perfection which it can never reach 
to, or at which it cannot long be stationary. In 
this idea I think I see the mistake of a speculative 
man, who is either not conversant zvith the world, 
or not sufficiently persuaded of the necessity of 
taking things as they are" Every body in the 
least acquainted with Mr. Burke's writings, must 
remember how frequently he condemns theory 
and speculation in politics, and that he uniformly 
declares himself for practice and experience, as the 
only safe guides in legislation and jurisprudence *. 

* The reader may compare these extracts with a passage 
in Burke's speech on conciliation with America. He will 
find it at page 35 of the third volume of his works. Let him 
also consult pages 176, 7. Opinions partly of a similar ten- 
dency will be found, in his speech on American taxation, at 
pages 86 and 89 ; and still earlier, in his Thoughts on the 
Cause of the Present Discontents : from which it will appt*ar. 



124 



The following remarks will be found in the 
second volume of the new edition of Junius: 
(pp. 136, 7) " The prorogation of parliament natu- 
rally calls upon us to review their proceedings, 
and to consider the condition in which they have 
left the kingdom. I do not question but they 
have done what is usually called the King's busi- 
ness, much to his Majesty's satisfaction. We 
have only to lament, that, in consequence of a 
system introduced, or revived in the present reign, 
this kind of merit should be very consistent with 
the neglect of every duty they owe to the nation. 
The interval between the opening of the last and 
the close of the former session was longer than 
usual. Whatever were the views of the minister, 
in deferring the meeting of parliament, sufficient 
time zvas certainly given to every member of the 
House of Commons,, to look bacfc upon the steps he 
had taken, and the consequences they had produced. 

that, nearly from the commencement of his political career, 
he was an enemy to speculative and metaphysical innovations 
in politics, and to the refinements of those who would alter 
the constitution, from the mere suggestions of theory, regard- 
less of experience. " To innovate," says he, on one occasion 
speaking of the affairs of America, "is not to reform. The 
Americans have been very serviceable to Britain under the 
old system ; do not let us, therefore, rashly seek a new. Our 
commercial interests have been hitherto very greatly pro- 
moted by our friendly intercourse with the colonies; do not 
let us endanger possession for contingency; do not let us 
substitute untried theories for a system experimentally ascer- 
tained to be useful.''' 



125 



The zeal of party, the violence of personal animo- 
sities, and the heat of contention, had leisure to 
subside. From that period, whatever resolution 
they took was deliberate and prepense." Mr. 
Burke often touches upon the utility of proroga- 
tions of parliament, in order that the members 
might have an opportunity of seeing the practical 
effects of their measures on the nation at large. 
One extract will be sufficient to show his agree- 
ment with Junius on this point. That, which I 
select, is the conclusion of his letter to a member 
of the National Assembly, in 1791. "In Eng- 
land we cannot work so hard as Frenchmen. Fre- 
quent relaxation is necessary to us. You are 
naturally more intense in your application. I did 
not know this part of your national character 
until I went into France in 1773. At present, 
this your disposition to labour is rather increased 
than lessened. In your assembly you do not 
allow yourselves a recess even on Sundays. We 
have two days in the week, besides the festivals ; 
and besides five or six months of the summer and 
autumn. This continued, unremitted eiTort of 
the members of your assembly, I take to be one 
among the causes of the mischief they have done. 
They, who always labour, can have no true judg- 
ment. You never give yourselves time to cool. 
J ou can never survey, from its proper point of 
sight, the work you have finished, before you decree 



126 



its final execution. You can never plan the future 
by the past. You never go into the country, so- 
berly and dispassionately, to observe the effect of 
your measures on their objects. You cannot feel 
distinctly how far the people are rendered better 
and improved, or more miserable and depraved, by 
what you have done. You cannot see, with your 
own eyes, the sufferings and afflictions you cause. 
You know them but at a distance, on the state- 
ments of those who always flatter the reigning 
power, and who, amidst their representations of 
the grievances, inflame your minds against those 
who are oppressed. These are amongst the 
effects of unremitted labour, when men exhaust 
their attention, burn out their candles, and are 
left in the dark. Malo meorum negligentiam quam 
istorum obscuram diligentiam." 

Junius and Burke having, I think, with two 
or three exceptions, agreed, almost wholly, upon 
every important political question of their day, 
it would be easy for me to multiply these ex- 
amples of their coincidence of opinion, as in- 
stances may be selected from most parts of their 
works. As most of my readers, however, may be 
disposed to think, that I have dwelt on it too 
long, it is not my intention to call their attention 
much longer to this part of the subject. Before 
dismissing it, however, I may allude to their 



127 

strictures on the Board of Trade, which was 
attacked with much severity and ridicule by 
both, as the reader will be able to see, by look- 
ing into Mr. Burke's speech upon economical 
reform, and into three of the Miscellaneous 
Letters of Junius. (See vol. iii. nos. 26, 27, 28.) 

The last instance of their agreement in opi- 
nion, which it is now my intention to notice, 
relates to the official correspondence of Lord 
Hillsborough, which they treat with very little 
respect. " The choice (says Junius) at least 
announced to us a man of superior capacity and 
knowledge. Whether he be so, or not, let his dis- 
patches, as far as they have appeared, let his mea- 
sures, as far as they have operated, determine for 
him. In the former we have seen strong asser- 
tions without proof, declamation without argu- 
ment, and violent censures without dignity or 
moderation ; but neither correctness in the com- 
position, nor judgment in the design." (Vol. i. 
p. 556.) " As a man of abilities for public 
business your first experiment has been unfor- 
tunate. Your circular letter to the American 
governors, both for matter and composition, is 
a performance, which a schoolboy ought to 
blush for." And after some extracts from his 
Lordship's Letter: " What are these but the 



128 



loose hackneyed terms of office, which make no 
impression because they convey no argument, 
and hardly a determinate meaning." " Is this 
the language of business, or attention ? Your 
letter, my Lord, does, indeed, deserve contempt, 
but the enterprises of the colonies are of other 
importance." (Vol. iii. pp. 148, 9, 50.) " In his 
new department, I am sorry to say, he has 
shewn neither abilities, nor good sense. His 
letters to the colonies contain nothing but ex- 
pressions equally loose and violent." " His 
correspondence, upon the whole, is so defective 
both in design and composition, that it would 
deserve our pity, if the consequences to be 
dreaded from it did not excite our indignation." 
(Ibid. p. 172.) Mr. Burke, in his speech on 
American taxation, treats Lord Hillsborough's 
dispatches with as little ceremony and respect. 
" It has been said again and again, that the 
five taxes were repealed on commercial prin- 
ciples. It is so said in the paper in my hand * : 
a paper which I constantly carry about ; which 
I have often used, and shall often use again.'' 
" This speech (from the throne) was made on 
the 9th day of May, 1769. Five days after this 

* Lord Hillsborough's Circular Letter to the governors of 
the Colonies, concerning the repeal of some of the duties laid 
in the Act of Parliament of 1767. 



129 

speech, that is on the 13th of the same month, the 
public circular letter, a part of which I am going 
to read to you, was written by Lord Hillsbo- 
rough, Secretary of State for the Colonies." 
After making some extracts from Lord Hills- 
borough's letter, he adds these words : — " Here, 
Sir, is a canonical book of ministerial scripture ; 
the general Epistle to the Americans'' — expres- 
sions, which sufficiently shew, that Mr. Burke 
was as well disposed as Junius, though he could 
not do it with so much propriety in his place in 
parliament, to treat the official correspondence 
of Lord Hillsborough with ridicule and con- 
tempt. 

In order to prevent this Inquiry from extend- 
ing to an immoderate length I find it necessary 
to conclude this discussion concerning similarity 
of style, with the following extracts from Mr. 
Burke's Thoughts on the Cause of the Present 
Discontents. " His Majesty came to the throne 
of these kingdoms, with more advantages than 
any of his predecessors since the revolution. 
Fourth in descent, and third in succession of his 
Royal family, even the zealots of hereditary 
right, in him saw something to flatter their 
favourite prejudices; and to justify a transfer of 
their attachments, without a change in their 



130 



principles *, The person and cause of the re- 
tender were become contemptible : his title dis- 
owned throughout Europe, his party disbanded 
in England. His Majesty came, indeed, to the 
inheritance of a mighty war ; but, victorious in 
every part of the globe, peace was always in his 
power, not to negotiate, but to dictate. No 
foreign habitudes or attachments withdrew him 
from the cultivation of his power at home. His 
revenue for the civil establishment, fixed (as it was 
then thought) at a large but definite sum, was 
ample without being invidious. His influence, by 
additions from conquests, by an augmentation 
of debt, by an increase of military and naval 
establishment, much strengthened and extended. 
And coming to the throne in the prime and full 
vigour of youth, as from affection there was a 
strong dislike, so from dread there seemed to be 
a general averseness from giving anything like 
offence to a monarch, against whose resentment 
opposition could not look for a refuge in any 
sort of reversionary hope." In another part of 
the same tract he writes thus : — An exterior 
administration, chosen for its impotency, or^ 
after it is chosen, purposely rendered impotent, 



* If the reader will look into the first paragraphs of the 
address of Junius to the king, he will find part of them writ- 
ten in exactly the same spirit. (See vol. ii. pp. 66, 7, 8, 77,8, 9.) 



131 

m order to be rendered subservient, will not be 
obeyed. The laws themselves will not be re- 
spected, when those, who execute them, are 
despised j and they will be despised, when their 
power is not immediate from the crown, or na- 
tural in the kingdom. Never were ministers 
better supported in parliament. Parliamentary 
support comes and goes with office, totally re- 
gardless of the man, or the merit. Is government 
strengthened ? it grows weaker and weaker ; the 
popular torrent gains upon it every hour. Let us 
learn from our experience. It is not support that is 
wanting to government, but reformation. When 
ministry rests upon public opinion, it is not, 
indeed, built upon a rock of adamant ; but when 
it stands upon private humour, its structure is 
of stubble, and its foundation is on quicksand. 
I repeat it again, He, that supports every admi- 
nistration, subverts alt government," The fol- 
lowing beautiful passage possesses, in a high 
degree, all the peculiarities, by which the style 
and manner of Junius are distinguished. " The 
court party resolve the whole into faction." ** 
" When they give this account of the preva- 
lence of faction, they present no very favour- 
able aspect of the confidence of the people in 
their own government. *** When the people 
conceive, that laws and tribunals, and even 



132 

popular assemblies, are perverted from the ends 
of their institution, they find in those names of 
degenerated establishments only new motives to 
discontent. Those bodies, which, when full of 
life and beauty, lay in their arms, and were their 
joy and comfort, when dead and putrid, become 
but the more loathsome, from remembrance of 
former endearments. A sullen gloom and fu- 
rious disorder prevail, by fits ; the nation loses 
its relish for peace and prosperity, as it did in 
that season of fullness, which opened our troubles 
in the time of Charles I. A species of men, to 
whom a state of order would become a sentence 
of obscurity, are nourished into a dangerous 
magnitude, by the heat of intestine disturbances; 
and it is no wonder, that, by a sort of sinister 
piety, they cherish, in their turn, the disorders, 
which are the parents of all their consequence. 
Superficial observers consider such persons as 
the cause of the public uneasiness, when, in 
truth, they are nothing more than the effect 
of it. Good men look upon this distracted scene 
with sorrow and indignation. Their hands are 
tied behind them. They are despoiled of all the 
power, which might enable them to reconcile 
the strength of government with the rights of 
the people. They stand in a most distressing 
alternative. But, in the election among evils, 



1.33 



they hope better things from temporary confu- 
sion than from established servitude. In the 
mean time, the voice of law is not to be heard. 
Fierce licentiousness begets violent restraints. 
The military arm is the sole reliance ; and then, 
call your constitution what you please, it is the 
sword that governs. The civil power, like every 
other that calls in the aid of an ally stronger 
than itself, perishes by the assistance it receives. 
But the contrivers of this scheme of government 
will not trust solely to the military power; 
because they are cunning men. Their restless 
and crooked spirit drives them to rake in the 
dirt of every kind of expedient. Unable to rule 
the multitude, they endeavour to raise divisions 
amongst them. One mob is hired to destroy 
another ; a procedure, which at once encourages 
the boldness of the populace, and justly increases 
their discontent. Men become pensioners of 
state on account of their abilities in the array 
of riot and the discipline of confusion. Govern- 
ment is put under the disgraceful necessity of 
protecting from the severity of the laws, that 
very licentiousness, which the laws had been 
before violated to repress. Every thing partakes 
of the original disorder. Anarchy predominates 
without freedom, and servitude without submis- 
sion, or subordination. These are the conse- 



134 



quences inevitable to our public peace, from the 
scheme of rendering the executory government 
at once odious and feeble; of freeing adminis- 
tration from the constitutional and salutary con- 
troul of parliament, and inventing for it a new 
conlrouly unknown to the constitution, an interior 
cabinet j which brings the whole body of govern- 
ment into confusion and contempt." 

Although, from the numerous examples already 
produced, to shew such an identity of thinking 
and similarity of style, as could not be merely 
accidental in any two writers, some may suppose, 
that I have already done enough on this part 
of the subject, it is still my intention to give 
other kinds of proof relative to style, and such 
proofs, indeed, as I am persuaded it will never 
be in the power of criticism to beat down by 
the powerful batteries of fair argument, aided by 
all the skirmishings of sophistry, chicanery, and 
evasion. The specimens, which I mean to give, 
are not proofs of excellency, but the contrary : 
they are specimens of faults against grammar, of 
bad construction, of vicious arrangement, and of 
bad taste, according to the received and estab- 
lished rules for correct and elegant writing. 
They are the leading, and almost the only de- 
fects, which occur in the writings both of Burke 



135 



and of Junius ; and, to prove that they were 
not the effect of design, it will be sufficient to 
say, that the} r run through the works of both, 
from one end to the other. The first class of 
specimens, which I mean to give, come under 
the head of inverted constriction. Besides the 
circumstance of its being far Jess elegant and 
obvious than the direct and natural arrange- 
ment, this species of construction has this addi- 
tional disadvantage attending it, that its obvious 
and necessary tendency is to throw words of 
little weight, or meaning, into the end of phrases 
or sentences, where such words only,, as are im- 
portant from their sound, or meaning, ought to 
be placed. 

The following examples of this species of con- 
struction are taken from Junius. My object in 
making such a numerous selection is to shew, 
that he was not aware of its being a defect, but 
that it was with him a steady and settled habit 
of writing. In a private letter to Mr. Woodfall 
this passage occurs. "ThatSwinney is a wretched, 
but a dangerous fool. He had the impudence 
to go to Lord George Sackville, whom he had 
never spoken to, and to ask him, whether, or no, 
he was the author of Junius ? Take care of him." 
It u more elegant by far, and more natural to- 



136 



say—" to whom he had never spoken" — than to 
use the arrangement adopted by the author. 
This inverted construction may be allowable in 
conversation, or in private letters, but in public 
speaking, and in all other kinds of composition, 
it is a defect, not an ornament. The following 
examples are also taken from his private letters. 
" A man who can neither write common English, 
nor spell, is hardly worth attending to." " You 
have never flinched, that I know of." " I shall 
be glad to see the packet you speak of." " Their 
inserting the whole proves they had no strong 
passages to fix on." " Which you never can 
depart from." " Admitting the apparent advan- 
tage to the cause you are engaged in." " Are 
these the terms^ which men who are in earnest 
make use of." " As to particular grievances, 
all those we complain of." " There cannot be 
a doctrine more fatal to the liberty and property 
we are contending for." " Yet to be excluded 
from those honours, which are the only rewards 
he pretends to." " A point of perfection which 
it can never reach to." " The domestic society 
you speak of is much to be envied." " Feeling 
for others, when my own safety is provided for." 
" Ask that amiable daughter, whom you so 
implicitly confide in." So far from the private 
letters. That the same construction runs through 



157 

all his public letters will be evident from the 
following examples. " In the present instance 
they really create to their own minds, or greatly 
exaggerate the evil they complain of." (Vol. i. 
p. 11.) Surely, at the end of such a sentence, it 
would be better to say, " the evil of which they 
complain" or " the evil ivhich is the cause "of 
their complaint." " Our ministers and magis- 
trates have little punishment to fear, and few 
difficulties to contend with." (P. 13.) " In the 
late prosecutions of the printers of my address 
to a great personage, the juries were never fairly 
dealt with." (P. 14.) " If the true spirit of those 
articles were religiously adhered to." (P. 40.) 
" No plan has been formed, no system adhered 
to." " If his plan be not irrevocably fixed on." 
(P. 52.) " Which, considering the temper they 
were in, it was impossible they should comply 
with." (P. 56.) " That writers, such as I am, are 
the real cause of all the public evils we complain 
of." (P. 71.) " And truly, the part, you have 
undertaken, is at least as much as you are equal 
to." (P. 73.) " If there be not a fatality attend- 
ing every measure you are concerned in." 
(P. 109.) "To give the sanction of government 
to the riots you complain of." (P. 113.) " Avail 
yourself of all the unforgiving piety of the court 
you live in." (P. 121.) " Your age demands 

T 



138 



some respect, or the cause, you have embark- 
ed in, would entitle you to none." (P. 122.) 
" Which common candour should have forbidden 
you to make use of." (P. 136.) " Return, my 
Lord, before it is too late, to that easy insipid 
system, which you first set out with." (P. 138.) 
" Let us look back together to a scene, in which 
a mind like yours will find nothing to repent 
of." (P. 140.) « Lord Chatham formed his 
last administration Upon principles, which you 
certainly concurred in, or, &c." (P. 144.) "An 
acquisition, the importance of which you have 
probably no conception of." (P. 150.) " The 
coy resistance you constantly met with in the 
British senate." (P. 151.) " That venal vote, 
which you have already paid for." (P. 170.) 
" Or the custom of parliament must be referred 
to." (P. 175.) " The specific disability, which 
we speak of." (P. 176.) " A decision of the house, 
diametrically opposite to that, which the present 
House of Commons came to in favour of Mr. 
Luttrell." (P. 187.) " There is no statute, by 
which the disability we speak of is created." 
(P. 214.) " But Junius has a great authority to 
support him, which, to speak with the Duke of 
Grafton, I accidently met with this morning, in 
the course of my reading." (P. 218.) Thus far 
from the first volume. The instances of the 



139 

same kind of construction, which occur in the 
second volume, are still more numerous. But as 
the examples I have already given are sufficient 
for my purpose, I shall content myself with 
referring the reader to the work itself, should he 
think further examples necessary. Some of the 
pages of the second volume where they occur 
are mentioned in the note *. 

Had I no other reasons for thinking, that the 
letters of Junius were written by Mr. Burke, the 
inference arising from this species of construction 
would be wholly satisfactory to my mind. Junius 
cannot be supposed to have adopted it as an 
improvement, for it is, in the opinion of all good 
judges, a defect in composition. The truth is, 
that he was not aware of its being a fault, or 
sensible that such an inelegant peculiarity ran 
through all his writings. The following detail 
will shew, that Mr. Burke was as partial to it 
as Junius, though it is not possible to suppose, 

* Of the 2d volume, see pp. 7, 30, 39, 55, 60, 62, 74, 75,78, 
80, 83,90,94,99, 100, 102, 118, 135, 142, 166, 167, 177, 
179, 186, 209, 211, 214, 215, 220, 226, 238, 255, 257, 265, 
304, 306, 313, 317, 322, 323, 327, 343, 346, 350, 351, 3j8, 
3H0, 386, 406, 407, 409, 413, 434, 437. All these examples 
occur in the letters, signed Junius and Philo-Junius. They 
are equally numerous in his Miscellaneous Letters, forming a 
part of the 2d, and the whole of the 3d volume. But it id 
unnecessary to cite further. 



140 



that he could think it ornamental ; nor, admit- 
ting him to be Junius, can it be at all credited, 
that he adopted it under that signature for the 
purpose of disguising his style, since it is equally 
common in all his acknowledged writings. Whe- 
ther Burke and Junius were the same person, or 
not, it is clear beyond all doubt, from their 
frequent use of it, that neither was aware, that 
he was trespassing against the rules of elegant 
composition and good taste in adopting this 
inverted construction, or arrangement. The 
following specimens are taken from his Thoughts 
on the Cause of the Present Discontents. " To 
complain of the age we live in." " The day he 
lives in." u Until the period we are speaking 
of." " The controversy is about that degree of 
good humour in the people, which may possibly 
be attained, and ought certainly to be looked 
for." " Beyond any that I have heard or read 
of." " Here it was spoken of," &c. " His 
distress would have been accounted for." " All 
this, however, is submitted to." " The evil com- 
plained of." " This is not a thing to be trifled 
with." " A degree of servitude that no w r orthy 
man could bear the thought of submitting to." 
" They will be cast into that miserable alter- 
native, which no good man can look upon, with- 
out horror." I find the following examples in 



141 

his speech at Bristol, in September, 1780, that is, 
more than ten years after the publication of his 
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. 
" My pretensions are such as you cannot be 
ashamed of." " Those parts of it which have been 
most excepted to." " Promises were made and 
engagements entered into." " Nothing remains 
now to trouble you with." " It was a ghost, 
which all had heard of." " The proceedings 
which have been complained of." " The affairs 
of religion which are no longer heard of." " The 
party I speak of." "The act that is complained of." 
" This voice ought to be listened to." " Whose 
names you never heard of." " This unanimous 
concurrence of whatever the nation has to boast 
of." " At the crisis I speak of." " What is done 
in England is still looked to." " Which infected 
and poisoned the air we breathed in." " This lust 
of party power is the liberty they thirst and hun- 
ger for." " Some of this description, and persons 
of worth I have met with." "That their opinions 
ought to have been previously taken and attend- 
ed to." If the reader wishes for further speci- 
mens, let him look to the note *. 

* Although we find this species of inversion in all parts of 
Mr. Burke's Works, it occurs more frequently in his early, 
than in his later writings. Those who will take the trouble 
of looking into the early volumes of the Annual Register will 
meet it frequently there. It is, indeed, so marked a pecu- 
liarity in his style, that one may use it as a pretty sure cri- 



142 



Anxious as the critics must have been to dis- 
cover any clue to the secret of Junius, it is not 
a little singular, that this very striking pecu- 
liarity in his writings, and in those of Mr. 
Burke, should have hitherto escaped their obser- 
vation. It is still more singular, that, in reading 
the works of both, it never struck them, that 
they coincided, not only in this respect, but also 
in regard to every other leading defect, or inele- 
gance of construction, by which the writings of 
either are distinguished. At least so convinced 
am I of the truth of this remark, that I shall 
pledge myself, if any body produces from the 
works of either several specimens of any marked 

terion for discovering his anonymous compositions. The 
3d volume of his Works, in 8vo. (Rivington's edition of 
1801), contains two of his speeches at Bristol, his speech on 
American conciliation, his letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, two 
letters to gentlemen in Bristol, and his speech on economical 
reform. If the reader will look into this volume, he will find 
further specimens of inverted construction in the parts re- 
ferred to as follows :— P. 19, 20, 46, 49, 136, 140, 197,213, 
221, 222, 227, 231, 242, 255, 270, 273, 274, 281, 286, 291, 
299, 332, 334, 335, 340, 345. In the sixth volume of his 
Works, which contains writings of a still later date, examples 
occur, among many others, in the following order: — P. 25, 
45, 61, 62,86, 90,96, 121, 123, 136, 144, 162, 185,204,206, 
219, 230, 243, 244, 250, 271-2, 280, 282, 304, 307, 315, 
327, 331, 334, 335, 336, 337, 346, 362, 366, 370. It is not 
my intention, at present, to give any more specimens under 
this head : but, should the critics not be satisfied with 
those already produced, I shall undertake to furnish them 
with such a number as will make them tax me, not so much 
with a parsimony, as with too great a profusion of examples. 



143 



peculiarity, to point out examples of a similar 
kind in the writings of the other. 

The next peculiarity, to which I shall direct 
the attention of my readers, is the improper use 
which both Junius and Mr. Burke frequently 
made of the article an. This article is correctly 
placed before words beginning with the letter h, 
if it be quiescent, as, for example, an hour ; and 
before words beginning with a u, when it has 
its own proper sound, as in this example, an 
umpire. But the use of it is improper, if the h 
be not quiescent, as, an heady an holy man, an 
hogshead, an hundred, &c. ; in all which cases 
the article a should be used, as the h has its own 
peculiar sound. The use of an before words 
beginning with a u, when that letter takes the 
sound of a y, is also inelegant and improper : 
thus in the following examples, an union, an unity 
an useless thing, &c. . Irt all such cases we should 
write a union, a unit, a useless thing, &c. What- 
ever volume of Mr. Burke's writings we may 
look into, we shall find him frequently trespass- 
ing against both these rules. The following 
instances are taken from the third volume of his 
works. •« An hasty opinion." (P. 20.) " Was 
followed by an heightening of the distemper." 
(P. 27.) « Yields to an higher duty." (P. 30.) 



144 



*« An healing and cementing principle." (P. 31.) 
" An House of Commons." (P. 50.) " In an 
high degree." (P. 57.) " An higher spirit." 
(P. 54.) " An uniform experience." (P. 92.) 
" There are few who will not prefer an useful 
ally." (P. 170.) " An hundred times." (P. 182.) 
" An habit of life." (P. 197.) " To strengthen 
an union of such men." (P. 201.) " An union 
with Ireland." (P. 215.) " An useless separa- 
tion." (P. 269.) " An useful prejudice." 
(P. 319.) Mr. Burke also frequently uses such 
expressions as the following: "An whole system/' 
(P. 56.) « An whole people/' (P. 69.) " An 
whole nation." (P. 86.) If we look into his 
sixth volume, we shall find, among others, the 
following examples. " An whole nation." (P. 4.) 
* For he chose an Hales for his Chief Justice." 
(P. 15.) " He must have an heart of adamant." 
(P. 47.) " An House of Lords." (P. 58.) 
" An helping hand/' (P. 6}.) " An harsh yet 
necessary duty." (P. 73.) si An whole commu- 
nity." (P. 94.) " An hundred others." (P. 99.) 
" For making an use." (P. 106.) " An habi- 
tual delegation." (P. 209.) " An unanimous 
agreement." (P. 212.) " An habitual regard." 
(P. 218.) " That our constitution is an usur- 
pation in its origin/' (P. 240.) " An unanimity 
and secresy." (P. 245.) " Has not been struck 



145 

out at an heat." (P. 261.) " With an Hercu- 
lean robustness of mind.'' (P. 263.) " An uni- 
versal exclusion." (P. 274.) " An higher situa- 
tion." (P. 286.) "An happy state." (P. 312.) 
" They, (says he elsewhere) who can read the 
political sky, will see an hurricane in a cloud no 
i than an hand, at the very edge of the 
horizon, and will run into the first harbour." 

If we read the works of Junius attentively we 
shall find many examples of the same peculiari- 
ties. For the sake of brevity I shall mention 
only a few. " Whenever Mr. Wilkes can tell 
me, that such an union is in prospect he shall 
heir from me." " If I were known I could no 
r be an useful servant to the public/' In 
his first letter he says " If, on the contrary, we 
see an universal spirit of distrust and dissatisfac- 
tion, &c." " When we speak of the firmness of 
government, we meap an uniform system of mea- 
sures, &c." " Our countrymen derive from 
thence a firmness, an uniformity, and a persever- 
ance in their designs, &c/" " From 'thence arose 
that desperate proceeding, which has given such 
an universal alarm to property/' " The surveyor 
general, who keeps all the crown titles, has an 
Hint to find a weak part in some old possession.'' 
' 1> it not an heavy aggravation, instead of the 
u 



146 



least excuse for their offence ?" cf Every body 
perceived that one such instance, supporting 
itself on a general claim, was equivalent to, and 
(like an universal proposition) comprehended a 
thousand/' " He assured us, that he did not 
know a single general officer (out of near an 
hundred now in the service) who was in any 
shape qualified to command the army." " He 
would be, ipso facto, an universal orator/' " To 
support an uniform system of falsehood requires 
greater parts, than even those of Lord Mansfield/ 
" An humiliating stipulation for referring the 
discussion of the prior right is a defeasance of 
the reparation/' " It would be the duty of every 
honest man to question every act of such an 
house of commons " " Strange fluctuation : from 
fourteen and an half to twenty -two/' " To 
whom he may formerly, perhaps, have given half- 
a-crown for negociating an hundred pound stock/' 
&c. &c. 

Tedious, no doubt, as this species of evidence 
must appear to some of my readers, I cannot 
prevail on myself to dismiss it as yet, for I am 
satisfied, that it must have great weight with 
scholars ; and these alone are the persons whose 
approbation I would wish to secure for this 
inquiry. They, I think, will readily forgive me, 



147 



if I solicit their attention to this kind of proof a 
little longer. 



Such modes of expression, as from hence — -from 
whence— from thence, occur in all parts of the 
writings of Burke and of Junius, and lead to the 
same conclusion, with those peculiarities, of which 
I have already taken notice. Indeed, it is the 
uniform regularity, with which these faults occur, 
in the works of both, that makes the argument 
drawn from these sources so very strong and 
conclusive. Such expressions as the above are 
incorrect as they are tautologous. The word 
hence means " from this place," thence " from 
that place," &c. ; so that the wox&from prefixed 
to either of them is redundant ; a defect, which 
Dr. Johnson long since pointed out to his con- 
temporaries. And yet the following examples 
will show how great a favourite it was with 
Junius and Burke. In the former the following 
instances may be seen : — " I should be glad to 
know, by what kind of reasoning it can be proved, 
that there is a power vested in the representative 
to destroy his immediate constituent : from zvhencc 
could lie possibly derive it ?" — " You ask me, 
from ivhence did the right orignatc, and for what 
purpose was it granted?" " From thence it will 
appear clearly, &c." (< This doctrine of Lord 



148 



Chief Justice Hale refers immediately to the 
superior courts, from whence the writ issues." 
" A key was found in his room there, which ap- 
peared to be the key of the closet, at Guildhall, 
from whence the paper was stolen." <c Every one 
will acknowledge, that Lord Townshend was at 
Quebec ; for every one remembers his letter 
from thence" " Our countrymen derive from 
thence a firmness, &c." " From thence arose 
that desperate proceeding, which has given such 
an universal alarm to property." " An officer 
hitherto little heard of, but from henceforth to be 
a name of dreadful note in this country." " His 
first appearace in the great world was as one of 
Lord Barrington's domestics, from whence he 
moved to Ireland, set up a shop, &c." If the 
reader will look into the note, he will find re- 
ferences in abundance to some of those parts of 
Mr. Burke's writings, where similar instances 
occur*. The three following are from his 
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discon- 
tents — " Returned again to the great ocean, 
from -whence it arose." " From whence few have 
had the good fortune to escape." " Speedily to 

* Examples are so numerous in all parts of his works, that 
I shall content myself with a few references, without trans- 
cribing any: — of vol. iii. see pp. 38, 60, 63, 78, 84, 87, 109, 
120, 183, 298, 312, 333. See of vol. vi. pp. 134, 250, 259, 
365, 367. Vol. vii. pp. 103, &c. &c. 



149 

be resolved into the mass from whence it arose." 
The reader will also find specimens in his speech 
on American Taxation: thus — cc It was in 
America that your resolutions were pre-declared. 
It was from thence, that we knew to a certainty, 
Sec." ** In all those acts the system of commerce 
i- established, as that,' from zvlience alone you 
proposed to make the colonies contribute, &c." 
" I venture to say, that, during that whole period, 
a parliamentary revenue from thence was never 
once in contemplation." " Do you mean to 
tax America, and to draw a productive revenue 
from thence?" 

I have already remarked, that one of the ef- 
fects of the inverted construction, so common in 
Burke and Junius, was to place words of trifling 
meaning, and of no importance as to the effects 
produced by their sound on the ear, at the end 
of phrases and sentences. But, independently 
of that, I have now to remark, that they are 
both in the constant habit of concluding sentences 
and even paragraphs with such words, even 
where the inverted construction does not occur, 
and where this delect might have been easily 
avoided; " The Americans will have no interest 
contrary to the grandeur and glory of England, 
when they are not oppressed by the weight of it." 



1.50 



If he had said, — " When they are not oppressed by 
its weight" — the meaning would be as complete, 
and the harmony and cadence more perfect. I 
may here remark, that Burke and Junius both 
constantly use, without any necessity, and with 
the same bad effect, as in this instance, the words 
of it instead of its, as the reader will be able to 
perceive in the next, and in several of the follow- 
ing examples. Instances occur in all parts of 
their works. " Then this unpleasant and un- 
handsome consequence will follow, that you 
judge of the delinquency of men, merely by the 
time of their guilt, and not by the heinousness of 
it." (Instead of its heinousness). The following 
sentence concludes a paragraph — " But, by 
being removed from our persons, they have 
rooted in our laws ; and the latest posterity will 
taste the fruits of them." It was very easy for 
the writer to avoid this tasteless termination: 
thus — " and the fruits of them will be tasted by 
the latest posterity." We know very well, that 
most, if not all, of their compositions were highly 
laboured both by Junius and by Burke: when, 
therefore, we find a defect like this run through 
the whole of their writings, we must be satisfied, 
that it proceeded from a want of taste and not 
from design, or from art. I shall give some far- 
ther specimens from each, without any comments 



151 



upon them. " I should forfeit the only thing, 
which makes you pardon so many errors and 
imperfections in me" " Am I not to avail 
myself of whatever good is to be found in the 
world, because of the mixture of evil that will 
always be in it?" " But, when the reason of old 
establishments is gone, it is absurd to preserve 
nothing but the burden of them." " The audit 
of the exchequer demands proofs, which in the 
nature of things, are difficult, sometimes impos- 
sible to be had." " They are antidotes against a 
corrupt levity, instead of causes of it?' " I think 
myself bound to give you my reasons as clearly 
and as fully, for stopping in the course of refor- 
mation, as for proceeding in it." " I will even 
go so far as to affirm, that, if men were willing 
to serve in such situations without salary, they 
ought not to be permitted to do it." " The 
noble Lord lamented very justly, that this states- 
man, of so much mental vigour, was almost 
wholly disabled from the exertion of it." " When 
the new plan is established, those, who are now 
suitors for jobs, will become the most strenuous 
opposers of them." " Having found the ad- 
vantage of assassination in the formation of their 
tyranny, it is the grand resource, in which they 
trust, for the support of it." " I was, without 
any call of mine, consulted both on vour side of 



152 

the water and on this.'" " No man, on reading 
that bill, could imagine he was reading an act 
of amnesty and indulgence, following a recital 
of the good behaviour of those, who are the 
objects of it." " It is in a great measure to this, 
&c. that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland 
have been prevented from becoming an intole- 
rable nuisance to the country, instead of being, 
as, I conceive, they generally are, a very great 
service to it." 

Let us now compare with these examples, 
taken from the writings of Mr. Burke, the fol- 
lowing from the letters of Junius. " Good men, 
to whom alone I address myself, appear to me 
to consult their piety, as little as their judgment 
and experience, when they admit the great and 
essential advantages accruing to society from the 
freedom of the press, yet indulge themselves in 
peevish or passionate exclamations against the 
abuses of it." He concludes the paragraph, 
which immediately precedes this extract, in his 
preface, in the following manner : " I speak to 
the plain understanding of the people, and ap- 
peal to their honest, liberal construction ofme" 
iC I cannot conceive, that there is a heart so 
callous, or an understanding so depraved, as to 
attend to a discourse of this nature, and not to 



1.53 

feel the force of it." " You soon forced him to 
leave you to yourself, and to withdraw his name 
from an administration, which had been formed 
on the credit of it.'' " The man, who is con- 
scious of the weakness of his cause, is interested 
in concealing it : and, on the other side, it is not 
uncommon to see a good cause mangled by ad- 
vocates, who do not know the real strength of it." 
" Reason may be applied to show the impro- 
priety, or expedience of a law, but we must have 
either a statute, or precedent, to prove the exist- 
ence of it." " As to G. A. I observe first, that 
if he did not admit of Junius's state of the ques- 
tion, he should have shown the fallacy of it." 
" Ywu cannot but know, sir, that what was Mr. 
Wilkes's case yesterday may be yours or mine 
to-morrow, and that, consequently, the common 
right of every subject of the realm is invaded 
by it." " Had he been a father, he would have 
been but little offended with the severity of the 
reproach, for his mind would have been filled 
with the justice of it." " His Grace had all the 
proper feelings of a father, though he took care 
to suppress the appearance of them.'" " Nor is 
it from any natural confusion in their ideas, that 
they are so ready to confound the original of a 
king, with the disgraceful representation if 
him." « As we are Englishmen, the least con- 



154 



siderable man among us has an interest equal to 
the proudest nobleman, in the laws and con- 
stitution of his country, *and is equally called 
upon to make a generous contribution in sup- 
port of them!' " Intoxicated with pleasure, 
they wasted their inheritance in pursuit of 
it." " The ablest men of all parties engage 
in the question, and exert their utmost abili- 
ties in the discussion of it." 

Of it was so great a favourite with Junius and 
with Burke, that they use it instead of its, not only 
at the end, but in all parts of their sentences. 
Thus in these examples : " They complained of an 
act of the legislature, but traced the origin of it 
no higher than to the servants of the crown." " I 
have received the favour of your note ; from the 
contents of it I imagine you may have some- 
thing to communicate to me." " Whether, or 
no, there be a secret system in the closet, and 
what may be the object of it, are questions, 
which can only be determined by appearances, 
and on which every man must decide for him- 
self." " How remarkable it is, that you have 
never yet formed a friendship, which has not 
been fatal to the object of it, nor adopted a 
cause, to which, one way or other, you have not 
done mischief." " One good effect at least 
would have been immediately produced by it!' 



155 



" Hereafter we shall know the value of it." " I 
extorted new taxes from you before it was pos- 
sible they could be wanted, and am now unable 
to account for the application of them." " In 
some men there is a malignant passion to de- 
stroy the works of genius, literature, and free- 
dom. The Vandal and the Monk find equal 
gratification in it." " That he has no possible 
resource, but in the public favour, is, in my 
judgment, a considerable recommendation of 
him" " It bore the appearance of a royal 
bounty, but had nothing real in it." " That he 
would have been pardoned seems more than 
probable, if I had not directed the public atten- 
tion to the leading step you took in favour of 
him." " Why the Earl of Chatham should con- 
tinue to hold an employment of this importance, 
while he is unable to perform the duties of it^ 
is, at least, a curious question/' " Or when you 
declared, that there was not a man in the army 
fit to be trusted with the command of it!' " The 
army, indeed, is come to a fine pass, with a 
gambling broker at the head of it.'' This num- 
ber of examples, I am persuaded, will be suffi- 
cient. If they are not all proofs of a want of 
taste, they will help to shew, in conjunction with 
the various other kinds of peculiarities already 
exemplified, such a prevailing coincidence of 



i5t> 



manner, between Burke and Junius, as it will be 
difficult to point out between any other two 
distinguished writers. 

Before I conclude this part of my inquiry, 
there are two peculiarities more, out of many 
others, to which I shall briefly allude. The first 
is, the use of the expression — whether or no, — 
which is incorrect, instead of — whether or not. 
In the following extract from Mr. Burke's letter 
to Lord Kenmare we find an example not only 
of this, bat also of two others of the peculiarities 
already mentioned. " At present I am much in 
the dark with regard to the state of the country, 
which the intended law is to be applied to. It is 
not easy for me to determine whether or no it 
was wise (for the sake of expunging the black 
letter of laws, which, menacing as they were in 
the language, were every day fading into disuse) 
solemnly to re-affirm the principles, and to re- 
enact the provisions of a code of statutes, by 
which you are totally excluded from the pri- 
vileges of the commonwealth, from the highest 
to the lowest, from the most material of the 
civil professions, from the army, and even from 
education, where alone education is to be had.'' 
For brevity's sake I shall content myself with 
this example from Burke. The following are 



157 

from Junius. " That Swinney is a wretched, but 
a dangerous fool. He had the impudence to go 
to Lord G. Sackville, whom he had never spoken to, 
and to ask him whether or no he was the author 
of Junius." " He told the jury, in so many 
words, that they had nothing to determine, ex- 
cept, the fact of printing and publishing, and 
whether or no the blanks, or innuendos, were 
properly filled up." (Vol. i. p. 3 5.) " You are 
by no means undeserving of notice; and it may 
be of consequence, even to Lord Granby, to 
have it determined, whether or no the man, who 
has praised him so lavishly, be himself deserving 
of praise." (Ibid. p. 77.) " I take the question 
to be strictly this: whether or no it be the 
known, established law of Parliament, &c." (Ibid. 
p. 1 74, and also at p. 1 90.) " The only ques- 
tion we ask is, whether or no it be true." (Ibid. 
p. 196.) " Without dwelling longer upon a 
most invidious subject, I shall leave it to mili- 
tary men, who have seen a service more active 
than the parade, to determine, whether or no I 
speak truth." (Vol. ii. p. 42.) The reader will 
find further examples in the following pages of 
tfee same volume: (88, 117, 202, 371.) The 
following is the last which I shall mention ; it 
is taken from the third volume. " Have they 
made any agreement with the Last India com- 
pany ? No. Have they made any provision for 



158 



outstanding navy and victualling bills ? I answer 
they must, whether they zvill or no." 

Although I have scarcely as yet exhausted a 
tenth part of my materials, the defect which is 
exemplified in the following extracts, is the last 
upon which I shall touch at present. But, should 
the public call for a second edition of this Inquiry, 
it is my intention to enlarge further on the 
subject, at some future time. 

Whenever an article is prefixed to a participle, 
the participle assumes the nature of a substan- 
tive, and ought to be governed by those rules 
of construction, which grammarians have laid 
down for governing the construction of substan- 
tives. Thus, in this instance, " It is virtually a 
begging of the. question," — the article a prefixed 
to it converts the participle begging into a sub- 
stantive, and the writer has properly introduced 
the sign of the possessive case of before the 
word question, which is the substantive imme- 
diately following. If, after using the article a 
before begging, he had left out the preposition 
of the sentence would be grammatically incor- 
rect. It would be also incorrect had he left out 
the a, and written thus : " It is virtually begging 
of the question." If either the article, or the 
preposition, be used, the construction is faulty 



159 

without the other : so that there are two ways 
of constructing such sentences, which are incor- 
rect. There are also two ways, in which they 
may be written correctly ; the manner, for in- 
stance, in which the sentence stands, as I have 
quoted it above, and the following: " It is vir- 
tually begging the question." In this last case, 
the word begging retaining its participial form is 
correctly followed, not by the possessive, but by 
the words, the question, in the objective case. 
These rules are constantly violated by Junius 
and by Burke. " But it is impossible he should 
be so far active in his own dishonour, as to ad- 
vise the taking away an employment, given as a 
reward for the first military success that distin- 
guished his entrance into administration." The 
writer ought to have said — " the taking away 
of an employment, &c." " It seems, that they 
bad hoarded up those unmeaning powers of the 
crown, as a grand military magazine towards 
the breaking the fortunes," (the breaking of the 
fortunes,) " and depressing the spirit of the 
nobility." " Lord North informed the House 
of Commons, &c. that he intended to move for 
a farther augmentation of ten thousand seamen, 
and thai, at any rate, he should advise the kce]>- 
ing up the naval and military force upon the 
augmented establishment/' It is not necessary 



160 



to quote farther from Junius. The following 
examples are from Mr. Burke : — " The lessening 
and granting away some part of her revenue, by 
Parliament, was alledged as the cause of that 
debt, and pleaded as an equitable ground, (such 
it certainly was) for discharging it." " He will 
therefore excuse my adding something more 
towards the further clearing up a point, which 
the great convenience of obscurity to dishonesty 
has been able to cover with some degree of dark- 
ness and of doubt." " The not paying more fre- 
quent visits here." " The teaching school, an 
useful and virtuous occupation, even the teaching 
in a private family was in every catholic subject- 
ed to the same unproportioned punishment." 
C( And it will be vain to think of saving of it." 
(In this example the second of is unnecessary.) 
" A statute was fabricated, in the year 1699, by 
which the saying mass was forged into a crime 
punishable with perpetual imprisonment." "This, 
I said, is equal in importance to the securing a 
government according to law/' " And, though 
he was aware, that the handling such matters in 
parliament was delicate, yet, &C." " That it 
should render the incurring debts on the civil 
establishment so very difficult, as to become 
next to impracticable." " But if a great body 
of the people, who contribute to this state lot- 



101 



tery, are excluded from all the prizes, the stop- 
ping the circulation with regard to them may 
be a most cruel hardship." " The taking away 
of a, vote is the taking away the shield, which the 
subject has, not only against the oppression of 
power, but, that worst of all oppressions, the 
persecution of private society and private man- 
ners/' " This mode will, on the one hand, pre- 
vent the unfixing old interests at once." " As to* 
the time, I have some doubts, whether it is not 
rather unfavourable to the issuing any manifesto, 
with regard to the intended government of 
France." Thus much will be sufficient at pre- 
sent on this head. If after so many examples as 
I have given of a coincidence, not merely in 
style and opinions, but also in grammatical 
errors and in false taste, any of the readers of 
this essay should be still so difficult of convic- 
tion, as not to be strongly inclined to suspect, 
that the Letters of Junius were written by Mr. 
Burke, I must confess I do not believe, that it 
would be possible to convince them, by any 
further specimens of this kind, or by any argu- 
ments drawn from these, or from similar sources. 
I shall, therefore, now pass on to evidence of 
another kind, from which, I hope, some of m\ 
readers will derive more satisfaction. 
v 



During the time of the original appearance of 
the Letters in the Public Advertiser, Mr. Burke 
was the person most suspected for being the 
writer; so much so, indeed, that most of those, 
who wrote answers to them in the public papers, 
either insinuated, or directly affirmed, that he 
was the author. It was natural for them to 
entertain this suspicion, as the opinions of Ju- 
nius coincided in general with those of Mr. 
Burke, who was, at that time, known to be an 
able political writer, and certainly the most elo- 
quent speaker in the House of Commons. It is 
well known, that, for many years before the 
letters of Junius appeared, Mr. Burke was a 
constant writer in the public journals ; and we 
are informed, by Bissett, in his Life, that he was 
indebted for the friendship and patronage of the 
Marquis of Rockingham to his essays and writ- 
ings in the Public Advertiser*. According to the 
last editor of Junius, the seventh communication^ 
sent by that writer to the Public Advertiser, was 
of the date of the 22d of October, 1767; that 

* Another of his biographers informs us, that " he and 
his brother Richard, assisted by his relation William Burke, 
published several papers in defence of the Rockingham party, 
in the Gazetteer, under various signatures, from the year 
£766 to 1768. Some of those papers were written in answer 
to Scott, of Cambridge, who appeared at the time under the 
s%nature of Antesejanus" 



1()3 



is one year and three months before the publi- 
cation of the first Junius. This communication 
is written in the form of a dialogue, in which the 
writer pretends to give an account of what pass- 
ed at a meeting of the Privy Council, assembled 
at the. Earl of Shelburne's, for the purpose of 
drawing up a set of instructions for Lord Towns- 
hend, who was just appointed to the government 
of Ireland. As it was known, that they had 
several meetings on this subject, without being 
able (so distracted and divided were they among 
themselves) to agree upon any regular plan for 
the guidance of his Lordship, Junius availed 
himself of the circumstance, and made it the 
foundation of a sarcastic, witty, violent, and 
able attack upon the ministry. To this commu- 
nication he gave the title of " Grand Council 
upon the Affairs of Ireland after eleven Adjourn- 
ments? It is written with great spirit, satire, 
and ability ; and was well calculated to make 
the ministry contemptible and ridiculous. Of 
this, too, they seem to have been themselves 
fully aware, as an answer to it was immediately 
published by them, giving, what the author 
called, a true account of a grand council in Hill- 
street. This pretended true account, which also 
appeared in the Public Advertiser, was attri- 
buted by Junius, and by the public, to Lord 
Shelburne, or to some body writing under his 



104 



immediate instructions. After the council are 
supposed to have determined upon the instruc- 
tions to be given to Lord Townshend, the writer 
of the time account makes the Lord President to 
address them as follows. 



President. ^Sl^M^ 



" If nothing further occurs to your excellency, 
nor to you, my Lords, upon the present busi- 
ness, it will be time, I believe, for us to break 
up. — 

(As the Council are rising a Secretary enters.) 

Secretary. 

ff My Lords, there is a person without, who 
says he has business of a private nature, and 
earnestly desires to be admitted/' 

S.S. 

tf Do you know who the man is ? Are you 
acquainted with his person ? 

Secretary. 

" I am, my Lord : but, as he desires, in case 
your Lordships do not think fit to see him, that 
his visit may be kept a secret, I beg to be ex- 
cused mentioning his name : I believe he is per- 
sonally known to every one present." 



165 

Omnes. 

" Let him come m" 

(The Secretary goes out and returns intro- 
ducing a tall, ill -looking fellow, in a 
shabby black coat. 

Lord President. 
" What are your commands with us, Mr. 



Brazen ? 

Brazen 



" The business, my Lords, that has brought 
me thus unexpectedly into your company, will, 
I am persuaded, excuse the unseasonableness of 
my intrusion. I flatter myself I am known, 
well known, to every one of your Lordships. 
My part has not been an obscure one : I may 
say, with the sublimest of all poets, " Not to 
know me, &'c." 

In the remainder of the dialogue the author 
of the true account goes on to represent Mr. 
Brazen (that is Mr. Burke) as offering to aban- 
don his own party, for the mere purposes of gain, 
and to go over to the ministry. This proposal is 
rejected by the council with contempt and indig- 
nation ; and one of the Secretaries of State (Lord 
Sli< Iburne, in whose house the council was held), 



166 



is represented as ordering Mr. Burke out of the 
house in these words, with which the dialogue 
concludes. 

S.S. 

" Here : who waits there ? Take this fellow 
and put him out of the house. " 

(Exit Brazen between two footmen.) 

Immediately after the publication of the true 
account, containing the above attack upon Mr. 
Burke, (that is on the 31st of October, 1767) 
the following letter from Junius appeared in the 
Public Advertiser. It merits particular atten- 
tion from this circumstance, that it was an answer 
from Junius to an article, in which a direct 
attack had been made upon Mr. Burke, with a 
view to represent him as a vile and unprincipled 
party man, and in which the former communi- 
cation of Junius was attributed to that gentle- 
man. Under these circumstances what does 
Junius do ? Does he say, that the account of the 
grand council, &c. was not written by Mr. Burke ? 
No such thing. Does he acquiesce in the im- 
putations, which the author of the true account 
wished to fix upon Mr. Burke ? By no means ; 
for, although he does not conspicuously say any 
thing of the direct charge of apostacy brought 



167 



against Mr. Burke, well knowing were he to 
acknowledge its truth, or to condemn its false- 
hood, that this would go very far towards iden- 
tifying him with that gentleman, he yet touches 
pretty feelingly upon the attempt made to ridi- 
cule Mr. Burke's shabby black coat, and turns his 
own weapon of raillery against the fine clothes 
and official situation of Lord Shelburne, by whom 
he evidently supposed the true account to be 
either written, or dictated. It is for this reason 
partly, that he almost exclusively attacks Lord 
Shelburne in this reply, and charges him directly 
with foppery and want of modesty, at the same 
time that he speaks slightingly of his wit and 
abilities. Whilst he re-affirms, and even more 
forcibly, than he had done in his original account 
of the grand council in Hill-street, his charges 
against the ministry, he converts his reply into 
a more direct and personal attack upon Lord 
Shelburne, the supposed author of the former 
attack upon Mr. Burke, which shews pretty 
clearly, that he wished to be revenged upon his 
Lordship for his hostility to that gentleman. 
To enable the reader to judge of the fairness of 
my comments upon this letter, I shall present 
him wjth a copy of the entire of it. It was as 
follows. 



168 



TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. 

SIR, October 3 1,1767. 

Your correspondent, who has furnished you 
with what he calls a true account of a grand 
council in Hill-street, does not appear to me to 
have done much service to his patrons. The 
former dialogue had at least some pleasantry 
(though not enough, I dare say, to draw a smile 
from the parties concerned) and, perhaps, in 
marking the characters a little too much truth. 
But this sorrowful rogue is too dull to be witty, 
and, as for truth, I suppose it would neither suit 
his argument, nor his disposition. His raillery 
upon a shabby black coat is, indeed, delicate to an 
extremes but he forgets, that wit and abilities 
have as little connectio?i with rich clothes, as they 
have with great places, and that a man may wear 
a fine suit, or figure as a secretary of state, with- 
out a single grain of either. But, sir, if facts 
asserted are notoriously false, the assertion of 
them can do no mischief; if notoriously true, 
they are beyond the reach of his wit, if he had 
any, to palliate, or of his modesty, which I think 
is upon a par with his wit, — to deny. Now, sir, 
if I were not afraid of distressing him too much, 
I would ask him, whether Lord Townshend 



169 

did not openly complain, only three days before 
his departure, that he could not by the warmest 
solicitations, prevail upon the ministry to agree 
upon any one system of instructions for him ; 
that he was left entirely to himself ; and that the 
ministry could not be persuaded to pay the 
smallest attention, either to his situation, or to 
that of the country he was sent to govern. Did 
he not say this, without reserve, to every man he 
met, even in public court, and with all possible 
marks of resentment and disgust ? I would advise 
your second correspondent not to deny these known 
facts ; for, if he does, I will assuredly produce 
some proojs of them, which will gall his patrons a. 
little more, than any tiling they have seen already. 
Let one of them only recollect what sort of con- 
versation very lately passed between him and the 
Lord Lieutenant,- how he was pressed, and how 
he 'evaded*. But the facts, of which the public 
are already possessed, sufficiently speak for them- 
selves, and the nation wants no further proof of 
the weakness, ignorance, irresolution, and spirit 

* Notwithstanding this direct attack upon Lord Shelbnrne, 
he and the partizans of the ministry remained silent ; think- 
tetter, no doubt, to hold their tongues, than to provoke 
their invisible opponent to the publication of those fads, with 
which he threatens them here. Their silence is a proof, that 
the) knew him to be acquainted with some of their proceed- 
which they did not wish to be made known to the 
public. 



170 

of discord, which reign triumphant in this illus- 
trious divan, who have dared to take upon them 
the conduct of an empire. 

<e One question more, and I have done. Did 
it become him, who has undertaken the defence 
of a whole ministry, to forget one of the principal 
characters of the piece ? Why should he omit 
the Dog ? This mongrel, that barks, and bites, 
and fawns, has nevertheless a share in council, 
and, in the opinion of the best judges, cuts full as 
good a figure in it as his master *. 

" Here : who waits there f f O charming- 
antithesis ! O polished language ! and equally 
fit for the noble Lord, who speaks, or for the foot- 
man, who hears it" 

* The Dog, or Mongrel here alluded to, was -^fiz^^r*^ 
who resided in the family of Lord Shelburne, and was em- 
ployed frequently in writing political essays under his Lord- 
ship's direction. Junius, in his account of the grand council, 
represents Lord Northington as wakened by the barking of 
this dog, and saying to Lord Shelburne : — " Zounds, my 
Lord, do you keep bull-dogs in your house?" — To which 
Malagrida, or Lord Shelburne, replies : — " No, my Lord, it is 
but a mongrel, Your true English bull-dog never quits his 
hold; but this cur plays fast and loose just as I bid him : 
He worries a man one moment, and fawns upon him the next." 

f Lord Shelburne's words, when he calls the servants t@ 
turn out Brazen, or Mr. Burke. 



371 

What could have induced Junius, in this 
letter, to single out Lord Shelburne and his 
mongrel, as the sole objects of his attack and 
ridicule, supposing him and Burke to be different 
persons, it is not easy to conjecture. It could 
not be, surely, for having attributed his former 
letter to Mr. Burke ; for it is not at all probable, 
that Junius could feel mortified at having one of 
his compositions ascribed to a man, who was, 
even at that time, acknowledged to be the best 
political writer, as well as the most eloquent 
speaker in the kingdom. But if we suppose 
Burke and Junius to be the same person, there 
is no difficulty ; for it was then very natural for 
the latter to feel hurt at any attempts made to 
injure the reputation of the former. And, though 
it was not very easy for him to be revenged on 
Lord Shelburne for the attack upon Mr. Burke, 
without giving room for suspecting, that his letter 
was written by the latter, it must be confessed, 
that he managed it with considerable dexterity 
and success, when we find, that he completely 
silenced and gagged the ministry. 

As a farther confirmation of my opinion, that 
this letter was written by Mr. Burke, it is well 
known that he always disliked Lord Shelburne. 



m 

Some of this nobleman's opponents, though 
ready enough to do credit to his abilities, accused 
him of insincerity and duplicity, and gave him 
the name of the Jesuit or Malagrida, on that 
account. Burke's dislike to Lord Shelburne, we 
may be sure, was not lessened by his becoming 
Secretary of State in that ministry, which suc- 
ceeded the Rockingham administration, and which 
by its ready acceptance of office, contributed in 
a great degree to their dismission. Bisset, after 
mentioning the friendship always entertained by 
Burke and Lord North for one another, though 
political enemies, adds these words : — " On the 
other hand, there were some of his political asso- 
ciates, whom he privately disliked; one nobleman, 
in particular, generally accused of duplicity, he 
always carefully avoided as a Jesuit." 

I am, therefore, upon a fair and candid view 
of the whole, satisfied in my own mind, that 
both these communications, which we now know 
to have been sent, by his private correspondent 
C, to Mr. Woodfall, were written by Mr. Burke. 

The fourth communication of Junius in the 
Public Advertiser, according to the new editor, 
but not the fourth in my opinion, as I shall 



173 

prove another time, is an attack upon the bro- 
thers Lord and Charles Townshend *. It is 
concluded thus : — " Are these the pair, who are 
to give stability to a wavering favourite and 
permanency to a locum tenens administration f 
Alas ! alas ! Non tali auxilio^ nee defensoribus 
istis tempus eget :" — 

" And is it by such a prop *hat Grafton thinks 
to stand, after throwing down his idol Pitt, at 
whose false altar he had before sacrificed his 
friends. Is it for such a man that Conway 
foregoes the connections of his youth and the 
friends of his best and ripest judgment ? O tern- 
pora ! O mores /" 

There is no man of that time, from whom 
such a passage as this could come more natu- 

* Junius says, that he was well acquainted with this par No- 
bile frutum, and, we must not forget, that Mr. Burke also knew 
them both well. I shall mention only one reason at present 
to show, that this attack upon Charles Town&hend may be 
rery naturally expected from Mr. Burke, who certainly was 
the leading man and best advocate of the Rockingham party, 
When the Rockingham ministry came into office, Charles 
Townshend, being asked what he thought of it, said, that it 
wi. " a lutestring administration and might last perhaps the 
summer; but would never do for winter." A remark, which* 
we may take it for granted, could not be at all pleasing to 
Mr. Burke. Charles Townshend was made Chancellor of 
tlu Exchequer in the chequered ministry of Lord Chatham, 
and even in that way may be supposed to have contributed. 
»n part, to the disappointment of Mr. Burke. 



174 

rally than from Mr. Burke. His opinion of 
the chequered and speckled administration of 
Lord Chatham, in 1766, is well known and 
remembered. That his Lordship's acceptance 
of office at that time, when the favourite 
could prevail upon nobody else to come in, 
and that too in union with the Duke of 
Grafton, which divided the Rockingham party, 
must have sorely mortified Mr. Burke was na- 
tural ; for it was the signal for Lord Rocking- 
ham's dismissal, and a complete bar to the hopes 
which, with his abilities and connections, it was 
impossible for Mr. Burke not to entertain of 
rising higher in the state. It was, therefore, to 
be expected, that Burke, who certainly was not 
devoid of ambition, should dislike this disap- 
pointer of his hopes, particularly when he knew, 
that Mr. Pitt had it in his power, either by re- 
fusing to come into office at the time, or by 
uniting with them, instead of dividing them, to 
give permanency to the Rockingham adminis- 
tration. Were we to suppose Burke writing in 
his own name he could hardly speak more feel- 
ingly for his own party, or reproach those who 
deserted it, with more apparent sincerity and 
disappointment, than Junius does, when he 
accuses the Duke of Grafton for having sacrificed 
his friends at the false altar of his idol, Pitt, and 
Mr. Conway, for abandoning " the connections 



175 

of his youth, and the friends of his best and 
ripest judgment." 

As Mr. Burke enjoyed little or no hereditary 
property, and was not brought up to any regular 
profession, we may suppose from the zeal with 
which he devoted himself very early to political 
writing, that all his views were directed to pro- 
motion in the state. Although, at the dismissal 
of Lord Rockingham, he was placed above want, 
he was not, however, so affluent as not to be 
fully sensible, that it was both desirable and 
necessary for him to mend and enlarge his for- 
tune. Whatever hopes, however, of this kind we 
may suppose him to have entertained before 
that event, must at that time have abandoned 
him, and that too for a period of which it was 
impossible for him to ascertain the limits. Such 
a disappointment at his time of life must sorely 
mortify any man ; and we may safely conclude, 
that it had its full effect on the highly sensible 
mind of Mr. Burke. In such circumstances, 
therefore, it was not to be expected, that he 
could entertain much respect for those, who, he 
must have known, contributed most to the down- 
fall of his friends and his own disappointment. 
And, accordingly, I cannot help thinking it a 
pretty strong coincidence in favour of his claims. 



1?6 



that the very persons, whom Junius makes the 
chief objects of his abuse and invectives, and 
regards with the greatest abhorrence, were those, 
to whom it was natural for Burke to be hostile, 
as being the chief causes of the removal of his 
party from office, or the only obstacles that pre- 
vented their return to power*. We all know 
how unmercifully Junius has belaboured the 
Duke of Grafton and Lord Bute. From whom 
could this be more naturally expected than from 
Mr. Burke ? It was to the secret influence of 
the latter, and to the desertion of the former, 
that, he knew, they were indebted for the dis- 
missal of Lord Rockingham's administration. 

The circumstance, which immediately led to 
their dismission from office, was as follows : — It 
was owing to the advice of the Lord Chancellor 
Northington. The ministry were engaged in 

* Of this the reader has already had some proof in the 
extracts made from the account of the Grand Council in Hill- 
street on the affairs of Ireland, after eleven adjournments. He 
will find it further confirmed, by looking into the fifth of the 
Miscellaneous Letters, in which he gives very satirical por- 
traits of the leading members of that ministry, by which the 
Rockingham party were turned out; thus of the Duke of 
Grafton, Lords Chatham, Camden, Northington, and Shel- 
burne ; of the Marquis of Granby, Mr. Conway, Thomas 
Townshend, Sir Gilbert Elliot, and Lord Barrington. See 
also the new edition passim. This matter will be further 
illustrated in subsequent parts of this Inquiry, 



177 



forming a constitution for the recently conquered 
province of Canada ; and Burke had sketched a 
plan for the purpose — On being shewn to the 
Chancellor Northington, he condemned it in the 
most explicit manner ; and going to the King, 
told him, that his ministers were totally inex- 
perienced in business, and unfit for office. The 
King, upon this, commissioned him to consult 
with Mr. Pitt on the formation of anew adminis- 
tration; in consequence of which Mr. Pitt consent- 
ed to come into office, and Lord Rockingham's 
party were immediately after dismissed. After 
condemning so explicitly Mr. Burke's sketch for 
the constitution of Canada, and being the imme- 
diate cause of the dismissal of the Rockingham 
party from office, it was not to be expected, that 
he could entertain much tenderness,or respect, for 
Lord Northington : It is, therefore, well worthy 
of remark, as serving in a strong degree to iden- 
tify Burke with Junius, that the latter has been 
as severely revenged of Lord Northington, as it 
was possible even for the former to desire ; and 
thai too in one of his earliest communications, 
in the Public Advertiser. The letter, to which 
1 allude, is the account of the grand council on 
the affairs of Ireland after eleven adjournments^ 
in which Junius, under the name of Tilbury, 
Lord Northington in Hie character of 
\ v 



178 

a drunken and a stupid blasphemer. The fol- 
lowing are the speeches which he puts in his 
mouth. " In the name of the devil and his dam, 
can any body tell what accident brings us five 
together ?" This is his opening speech. The 
next is with respect to the instructions to be 
given to Lord Townshend, on which Tilbury 
says — " Blast me, if I care, whether he has any 
instructions or not. But who the devil's to draw 
them up ?" And again : " Blast me'rfl know any 
thing of the matter." (falls asleep.) On being 
wakened, by the barking of a dog, he says, start- 
ing up — " Zounds, my Lord, do you keep bull- 
dogs in your house ?" His last speech is when he 
declines listening to Malagrida in these words : 
* f No, damn me, 'tis a little too late, I thank you. 
(Aside.) This silly puppy takes me for his 
schoolmaster, and fancies I am obliged to hear 
him repeat his task to me." Exit. 

Most of the readers of Junius, I mean the 
readers of all the old editions, are not aware, 
that he attacked Mr. Pitt as severely as he did 
Lord Bute and the Duke of Grafton. They 
remember his fine (though conditional and qua- 
lified) panegyric of Lord Chatham ; but, if they 
look into the new edition, they will find, that he 
has poured forth against him, as it is expressed 



179 

by Sterne, almost every name vituperative under 
heaven. Indeed, if we take the word of the 
new editor, the two first communications, which 
Junius ever sent to the Public Advertiser, were 
dreadful philippics against Lord Chatham ; but 
whether they were the first, or not, I must own, 
so great is their severity, that, in my mind, there 
was no other source, at that time, from which 
they could be more naturally expected to flow, 
than from the disappointed hopes and ambition 
of Mr. Burke. Anxious as he must have been, 
on his own account, for the continuation of the 
Rockingham administration, it was quite natural 
for Mr. Burke to be offended at Mr. Pitt's ac- 
ceptance of office at that time, as he knew, had 
he joined with the Rockingham party, instead 
of forming his patched up ministry, that they 
might command their own terms, and destroy 
tlit influence of the favourite for ever. 

In the first of these letters, Junius compares 
him to a dictator, striving to perpetuate his own 
power, and to trample on the liberties of his 
country. The following short extracts will shew 
how he treats him. " But if, instead of a man 
of a common mixed character, whose vices might 
be redeemed by some appearance of virtue and 
generosity, it should have unfortunately hap- 



180 

pened, that a nation had placed all their confi- 
dence in a man purely and perfectly bad, &c. &c. 
The history of every nation, that once had a 
claim to liberty, will tell us what would be the 
progress of such a traitor, and what the probable 
event of his crimes." " But it is in the natural 
course of things, that a despotic power, which of 
itself violates every principle of a free constitu- 
tion, should be acquired by means, which equally 
violate every principle of honour and morality." 
" The same measures, by which an abandoned 
profligate is advanced to power, must be ob- 
served to maintain him in it." He then pro- 
ceeds to condemn him for forming his ministry 
without the concurrence and aid of the leading 
whigs and the principal nobility ; a topic, upon 
which Mr. Burke afterwards touched, in his 
Thoughts on the Cause of the present Discontents. 
In his second letter he attacks Lord Chatham 
for his acceptance of a title, or, to use the words 
of Mr. Wilkes, of a place, a peerage, and a 
pension. In another place he remarks : — " Your 
correspondent of yesterday, Mr. Macaroni, in 
his account of the new ministerial arrangements, 
has thrust in a laboured bombast panegyric on 
the Earl of Chatham ; in which he tells us — 
?' that this country owes more to him than it 
can ever repay/' Now, Mr. Woodfall, I en- 



181 

tirely agree with Mr. Macaroni, that this 
country does owe more to Lord Chatham than 
it can ever repay ; for to him we owe the greatest 
part of the national debt ; and that, I am sure, 
we never can repay. I mean no offence to 
Mr. Macaroni, nor any of your gentlemen authors, 
who arc so kind as to give us citizens * an early 
peep behind the political curtain ; but I cannot 
bear to see so much incense offered to an idol, 
wkd so little deserves it." 

The following extract is from the third com- 
munication of Junius, containing an attack on 
Lord Bute, and goes a good way, I think, to- 
wards identifying Junius with Mr. Burke. " It 
is worth while to consider, though perhaps not 
safe to point out, by what arts it has been pos- 
sible for him (Lord Bute) to maintain himself 
so long in power, and to screen himself from the 
national justice. Some of them have been ob- 
vious enough ; the rest may without difficulty 
be guessed at. But, whatever they are, it is not 
above a twelvemonth ago, since they might Have 
all been defeated, and the venemous spider itself 



* It is a coincidence, which deserves to be remarked, (hat 
Mr. Burke, in his ironical letter, signed IVyhittington, which 
cqntained a very humorous and severe attack' <m Lord Chat- 
ham, said that he himself was a citizen. 



182 



caught and tr ambled on in its own webs. It was 
then his good fortune to corrupt one man, from 
xvhom zve least of all expected so base an apostacy. 
Who, indeed, could have expected, that it should 
ever consist with the spirit, or understanding, of 
that person to accept of a share of power under 
a pernicious court minion, whom he himself had 
affected to detest, or despise, as much as he knew 
he was detested and despised by the whole 
nation ? I will not censure him for the avarice of 
a pension, nor the melancholy ambition of a 
title. These were objects, which he, perhaps, 
looked up to, though the rest of the world 
thought them far beneath his acceptance*.'* 
Had Mr. Burke been writing on the same sub- 
ject, it would be difficult for him, in my opinion, 
to deprecate and to lament more feelingly Lord 
Chatham's acceptance of office, in the manner 
in which it was effected, or to point more di- 
rectly than Junius does in this passage, to a 
union between him and the friends of Lord Rock- 
ingham. 

* It ought not to be forgotten here, how severely Mr. 
Burke attacked Lord Chatham about the same time, in his 
celebrated ironical letter, signed Whittington, from which I 
have made some extracts in a preceding part of this tract, 
(see pp. 69, 70), and which, it is well known, contributed 
greatly to sink his Lordship's popularity in the city. 



183 



We know, that Mr. Burke wished to see this 
country always governed by an aristocracy of 
property and of talents, which should princi- 
pally consist of the representatives of those whig 
families who had been most active in bringing 
about the Revolution. Junius, in one of his 
Miscellaneous Letters, after noticing some ca- 
lumnies and scurrilities, that had been poured 
forth against the whigs, in the ministerial writ- 
ings, concludes thus : — " This ought to be the 
inviolable rule, where the question is concerning 
offices of trust, which require weight and ability 
for their execution. When the question is con- 
cerning the mere graces of the crown, the rule is 
to become, even more severe ; and every lover of 
the constitution must think it a crime, hardly 
less than treason, in those, who shall advise a 
court to discountenance the families which have 
promoted the revolution, and at the same time 
to load with its favours those, who, (reconciled 
by profit, not by opinion), have ever been the 
declared enemies both of the Revolution and of 
every benefit we derive from that happy event." 

I shall add but one extract more from Junius, 
before I solicit the attention of my readers to a 
document, which, if I do not deceive myself 
very much, will set the controversy concerning 



184 



the author of Junius for ever at rest. It is taken 
from one of his letters, signed Domitian, and is 
a fair and exact summary of some of the lead- 
ing parts of Mr. Burke's tract on the Cause of the 
Present Discontents. This will appear evident, 
from comparing it even with those extracts from 
that tract, which the reader has seen in a pre- 
ceding part of this Inquiry. " His majesty, God 
bless him ! has now got rid of every man, whose 
former services, or present scruples, could be 
supposed to give offence to her Royal Highness 
the Princess Dowager of Wales. The security 
of our civil and religious liberties cannot be more 
happily provided for, than while Lord Mansfield 
pronounces the law, and Lord Sandwich repre- 
sents the religion of St. James's. Such law and 
such religion are too closely united to suffer even 
a momentary intervention of common honesty 
between them. Her Royal Highness's scheme 
of government, formed long before her husband's 
death, is now accomplished. She has succeeded 
in disuniting every party, and dissolving every 
connection ; and, by the mere influence of the 
crown, has formed an administration, such as it 
is, out of the refuse of them all. There are two 
leading principles in the politics of St. James's, 
which will account for almost every measure of 
government since the King's "accession. The 



185 

first is, that the prerogative is sufficient to make 
a lackey a prime minister, and to maintain him 
in that post, without any regard to the welfare, 
or to the opinion of the people. The second is, 
that none but persons, insignificant in them- 
selves, or of tainted reputation, should be brought 
into employment. Men of greater consequence 
and abilities will have opinions of their own, and 
will not submit to the meddling, unnatural am- 
bition of a mother, who grasps at unlimited 
power at the hazard of her son's destruction. 
They will not suffer measures of public utility, 
which have been resolved upon in council, to be 
checked and controuled by a secret influence in 
the closet. Such men, consequently, will never 
be called upon but in cases of extreme necessity. 
When that ceases, they will find their places no 
longer tenable. To answer the purposes of an 
ambitious woman, an administration must be 
formed of more pliant materials, — of men, who 
having no connection with each other, no per- 
sonal interest, no weight, or consideration with 
the people, may separately depend upon the 
smiles of the crown alone for their advancement 
to high offices, and for their continuance there* 
If such men resist the Princess Dowager's plea- 
sure, his Majesty knows, that he may dismiss 
then without risking any thing from their re- 

B B 



186 

sentment. His wisdom suggests to him, that, if 
he were to choose his ministers for any of those 
qualities, which might entitle them to public 
esteem, the nation might take part with them 
and resent their dismission. As it is, whenever 
he changes his servants, he is sure to have the 
people, in that instance, on his side." 

When I first formed the resolution of writing 
this Inquiry concerning the author of Junius, 
I was fully aware, that I imposed no very pleas- 
ing task upon myself. — I knew, that the under- 
taking would require much reading and the 
exertion of memory rather than great genius, 
much "profundity of thinking, or any extraor- 
dinary exertions in the way of fine writing. 
With my view of the subject I was persuaded, 
that numerous extracts would do more to estab- 
lish my opinion, than the most laboured and 
finished disquisition ; and, accordingly, I have 
hitherto confined myself to that plan, seldom 
troubling the reader with my own observations, 
and sometimes even passing by some of the con- 
clusions, which the extracts suggested, from an 
opinion, that they could not well escape the ob- 
servation of those, who read them with attention. 
The inquiry, in my opinion, required much 
detail rather than nice disquisition, or ingenious 



1«7 

speculation ; and seemed as forcibly to solicit 
simplicity of writing, as it did to reject the en- 
cumbering aid of unnecessary, and therefore of 
meretricious, decoration. But let us return to 
our proofs. 

On the 24th of November, 1767, the King 
went to the House of Lords, and opened the 
session with the following speech. 

" My Lords and Gentlemen, 

" I have chosen to call you together at this 
season of the year, that my Parliament might 
have full deliberations upon all such branches of 
the public service, as may require their imme- 
diate attention ; without the necessity of conti- 
nuing the session beyond the time most suitable 
to my people, for the election of a new parlia- 
ment : and I doubt not, but you will be careful, 
from the same considerations, to avoid, in your 
proceedings, all unnecessary delay. 

<e Nothing, in the present situation of affairs 
abroad, gives me reason to apprehend, that you 
will be prevented, by any interruption of the 
public tranquillity, from fixing your whole at- 
tention upon such points, as concern the internal 
welfare and prosperity of my people. 



188 

" Among these objects of a domestic nature, 
none can demand a more speedy, or more serious 
attention, than what regards the high price of 
corn, which neither the salutary laws passed in 
the last session of parliament, nor the produce 
of the late harvest, have yet been able so far to 
reduce, as to give sufficient relief to the distresses 
of the poorer sort of my people. Your late resi- 
dence in your several counties must have enabled 
you to judge, whether any further provisions can 
be made conducive to the attainment of so 
desirable an end. 

" Gentlemen of the House of Commons, 
" I will order the proper officers to lay before 
you the estimates for the service of the ensuing 
year. The experience I have had of your con- 
stant readiness to grant me all such supplies, as 
should be found necessary for the security, in- 
terest, and honour of the nation, (and I have no 
other to ask of you) renders it unnecessary for 
me to add any exhortations upon this head : and 
I doubt not but the same public considerations 
will induce you to persevere, with equal alacrity, 
in your endeavours to diminish the national debt; 
while, on my part, no care shall be wanting to 
contribute, as far as possible, to the attainment 
of that most essential object, by every frugal 
application of such supplies as you shall grant. 



189 

" My Lords and Gentlemen, 
" The necessity of improving the present general 
tranquillity to the great purpose of maintaining 
the strength, the reputation, and the prosperity 
of this country, ought to be ever before your 
eyes. To render your deliberations for that 
purpose successful, endeavour to cultivate a spirit 
of harmony among yourselves. My concurrence 
in whatever will promote the happiness of my 
people you may always depend upon ; and, in 
that light, I shall ever be desirous of encouraging 
union among all those, who wish well to their 
country." 

After this speech had been read in the House 
of Commons, an address was moved and seconded, 
in the usual manner. Mr. Secretary Conway 
then stood up and supported the motion. He 
concluded his speech with a panegyric on the 
l.tti Mr. Charles Townshend ; and, having men- 
tioned his talents, abilities, judgment, sagacity, 
&c. lie said, — u That his dear lamented friend 
had engaged himself to prepare a plan to be 
submitted to parliament, for the effectual relief 
of the poor in the article of provisions; and he 
had no question, that, if that great man had sur- 
vived, he would have been able to perform his 
promise i but, unfortunately for the public, his 



190 

plan was lost with him : that it was easy to find 
a successor to his place, but impossible to find a 
successor to his abilities, or one equal to the 
execution of his plans. The house ought not, 
therefore, to be surprised, that the King's sur- 
viving servants had not yet been able to devise 
any scheme for the relief of the poor, although a 
man of Mr. Townshend's superior qualifications 
might have been fully equal to the task.'' 

Mr. Burke then got up and spoke to the fol- 
lowing purport. — " Sir, The condition of this 
country, at the conclusion of the last spring, was 
such as gave us strong reason to expect, that not 
a single moment of the interval between that 
period and our winter meeting would be lost, or 
misemployed. We had a right to expect, that 
gentlemen, who thought themselves equal to 
advise about the government of the nation, would, 
during this period, have applied all their atten- 
tion, and exerted all their efforts, to discover some 
effectual remedy for the national distress. For 
my own part, I had no doubt, that, when we 
again met, the administration would have been 
ready to lay before us some plan for a speedy 
relief of the people, founded upon such certain 
lights and informations, as they alone are able to 
procure, and digested with an accuracy propor- 



191 



tioned to the time they have had to consider of 
it : hut, if these were our expectations, if these 
were the hopes conceived by the whole house, 
how grievously are we disappointed ! After an 
interval of so many months, instead of being 
told, that a plan is formed, or that measures are 
taken, or at least, that materials have been dili- 
gently collected, upon which some scheme might 
be founded, for preserving us from famine ; we 
see that this provident ministry, these careful 
providers, are of opinion, they have sufficiently 
acquitted themselves of their duty, by advising 
his Majesty to recommend the matter once more 
to our consideration, and so endeavouring to re- 
themselves from the burthen and censure, 
which must fall somewhere, by throwing it upon 
parliament. God knows in what manner they 
have been employed for these four months past. 
It appears too plainly they have done but little 
good. I hope they have not been busied in 
mischiefs and though they have neglected 
every useful, every necessary occupation, I hope 
their leisure has not been spent in spreading 
corruption through the people. 

" Sir, I readily assent to the laborious pa- 
negyric, which the honourable gentleman upon 
the floor (Mr. Conway) has been pleased to make 



192 

on a very able member of the administration, 
whom we have lately lost, (Mr. Charles Towns- 
hend :) No man had a higher opinion of his talents 
than I had -, but as to his having conceived any 
plan for remedying the general distress about 
provisions, (as the gentleman would have us un- 
derstand) I see many reasons for suspecting, that 
it could never have been the case. If that gen- 
tleman had formed such a plan, or if he had col- 
lected such materials as we are now told he had, 
I think it is impossible but that, in the course of 
so many months, some knowledge, or intimation, 
of it must have been communicated to the gen- 
tlemen who acted with him, and who were united 
with him, not less by friendship than by office. 
He was not a reserved man ; and surely, sir, his 
colleagues, who had every opportunity of hearing 
his sentiments in office, in private conversation, 
and in this house, must have been strangely in- 
attentive to a man, whom they so much admired, 
or uncommonly dull, if they could not retain the 
smallest memory of his opinions on matters on 
which they ought naturally to have consulted 
him often. If he had even drawn the loosest 
outlines of a plan, is it conceivable, that all traces 
of it should be so soon extinguished ? To me, 
sir, such an absolute oblivion seems wholly in- 
credible. Yet, admitting the fact for a moment, 



\w 



what an humiliating confession is it for an ad- 
ministration, who have undertaken to advise 
about the conducting of an empire, to declare to 
this house, that, by the death of a single man, all 
projects for the public good are at an end, all 
plans are lost, and that this loss is irreparable, 
since there is not a leader surviving, who is, in 
any measure, capable of filling up the dreadful 
vacuum. 

" But I shall quit this subject for the present ; 
and, as we are to consider of an address in re- 
turn to the speech from the throne, I beg leave 
to mention some observations occurring to me 
upon the speech itself, which, I think, I am 
warranted, by the established practice of this 
house, to treat merely as the speech of the 
minister. 

M The chief and only pretended merit of the 
speech is, that it contains no extraordinary mat- 
ter, that it can do no harm, and, consequently, 
that an address of applause upon such a speech is 
but a mere compliment to the throne, from which 
no inconvenience can arise, nor consequence be 
drawn. Now, sir, supposing this to be a true 
representation of the speech, I cannot think it 
does the administration any groat honour, nor 
C c 



194 

can I agree, that to applaud the throne for such 
a speech would be attended with no inconve- 
nience. Although an address of applause may 
not enter into the approbation of particular 
measures, yet it must unavoidably convey a 
general acknowledgement at least, that things 
are, upon the whole, as they should be, and that 
we are satisfied with the representation of them, 
which we have received from the throne. But 
this, sir, I am sure, would be an acknowledge- 
ment inconsistent with truth, and inconsistent 
with our own interior conviction, unless we are 
contented to accept of whatever the ministry 
please to tell us, and wilfully shut our eyes to 
any other species of evidence. 

" As to the harmlessness of the speech, I must, 
for my own part, regret the times, when speeches 
from the throne deserved another name, than that 
of innocent j when they contained some real 
and effectual information to this house, some 
express account of measures already taken, or 
some positive plan of future measures, for our 
consideration. Permit me, sir, to divide the 
present speech into three heads, and a very little 
attention will demonstrate, how far it is from 
aiming at that spirit of business and energy, 
which formerly animated the speeches from the 



195 

throne : you will see, under the division, that the 
small portion of matter contained in it is of such 
a nature, and so stated, as to preclude all pos- 
sibility, or necessity of deliberation in this place. 
The first article is e that every thing is quiet 
abroad.' The truth of this assertion, when con- 
firmed by an enquiry, which I hope this house 
will make into it, would give me the sincerest 
satisfaction j for, certainly, there never was a 
time when the distress and confusion of the in- 
terior circumstances of this nation made it more 
absolutely necessary to be upon secure and 
peaceable terms with our neighbours : but I am 
a little inclined to suspect, and indeed it is an 
opinion too generally received, that this appear- 
ance of good understanding with our neighbours 
deserves the name of stagnation rather than of 
tranquillity ; that it is owing, not so much to the 
success of our negotiations abroad, as to the 
absolute and entire suspension of them for a very 
considerable time. Consuls, envoys, and am- 
bassadors, it is true, have been regularly ap- 
pointed, but, instead of repairing to their sta- 
tions, have, in the most scandalous manner, 
loitered at home : as if they had either no business 
to do, or were afraid of exposing themselves to 
the resentment, or derision of the court to which 
they were destined. Thus have all our nego- 



196 



tiations with Portugal been conducted, and thus 
they have been dropped. Thus hath the Manilla 
ransom, that once favourite theme, that per- 
petual echo with some gentlemen, been consigned 
to oblivion. The slightest remembrance of it 
must not now be revived. At this rate, sir, 
foreign powers may well permit us to be quiet ; 
it would be equally useless and unreasonable in 
them to interrupt a tranquillity, which we submit 
to purchase upon such inglorious terms, or to 
quarrel with an humble, passive government, 
which hath neither spirit to assert a right, nor 
to resent an injury. In the distracted, broken, 
miserable state of our interior government, our 
enemies find a consolation and remedy for all 
that they suffered in the course of the war, and 
our councils amply revenge them for the suc- 
cesses of our arms. 

" The second article of the speech contains 
' a recommendation of what concerns the clear, 
ness of corn to our immediate and earnest deli- 
beration.' No man, sir, is more ready than 
myself, as an individual, to show all possible 
deference to the respectable authority under 
which the speech from the throne is delivered ; 
but, as a member of this house, it is my right, 
nay, I must think myself bound to consider it as 



197 

the advice of the minister; and, upon this prin- 
ciple, if I would understand it rightly, or even do 
justice to the text, I must carry the minister's 
comment along with me. But what, sir, has 
been the comment upon the recommendation 
made to us from the throne? Has it amounted 
to any more, than a positive assurance, that all 
tin endeavours of administration to form a plan 
for relieving the poor in the article of provisions 
had proved ineffectual? That they neither have a 
plan, nor materials of sufficient information to 
lay before the house, and that the object itself is, 
in their apprehension, absolutely unattainable? 
If this be the fact, if it be really true, that the 
minister, at the same time that he advises the 
throne to recommend a matter to the earnest 
deliberation of parliament, confesses, in his com- 
ment, that this very matter is beyond the reach 
of this house, what inference must we necessarily 
draw horn such a text, and such an illustration? 
I will not venture to determine what may be the 
real motive of this strange conduct and inconsist- 
ent language, but I will boldly pronounce, that 
t carries with it a most odious appearance. 
[" It has too much the air of a design to excul- 
pate the crown, and the servants of the crown, 
at the expence of parliament. The gracious 
mmendation in the speech will soon be known 



J 98 

all over the nation. The comment and true 
illustration added to it by one of the ministry 
will probably not go beyond the limits of these 
walls/' [It was not then allowed to report the 
speeches of members of parliament as it is at 
present.) "What then must be the consequence? 
The hopes of the people will be raised. They of 
course will turn their eyes upon us, as if our 
endeavours alone were wanting to relieve them 
from misery and famine, and to restore them to 
happiness and plenty ; and, at last, when all their 
golden expectations are disappointed ; when they 
find, that, notwithstanding the earnest recom- 
mendation from the crown, parliament has taken 
no effectual measures for their relief, the whole 
weight of their resentment will naturally fall upon 
us their representatives. We need not doubt 
but the effects of their fury will be answerable to 
the cause of it. It will be proportioned to the 
high recommending authority, which we shall 
seem not to have regarded; and, when a mo- 
narch's voice cries havock, will not confusion, 
riot, and rebellion, make their rapid progress 
through the land ? The unhappy people, groan- 
ing under the severest distress, deluded by vain 
hopes from the throne, and disappointed of relief 
from the legislature, will, in their despair, either 
set all law and order at defiance ; or, if the law 



199 

be enforced upon them, it must be by the bloody 
assistance of a military hand. We have already 
had a melancholy experience of the use of such 
assistance. But even legal punishments lose all 
appearance of justice, when too strictly inflicted 
on men compelled by the last extremity of dis- 
tress to incur them. We have been told, indeed, 
that, if the crown had taken no notice of the 
distress of the people, such an omission would 
have driven them to despair ; but, I am sure, sir, 
that to take notice of it, in this manner, to ac- 
knowledge the evil and to declare it to be without 
remedy, is the most likely way to drive them to 
something beyond despair — to madness; and 
against whom will their madness be directed, but 
against us their innocent representatives?] 

" With respect to the third, and last head into 
which the speech may be divided, I readily agree, 
that there is a cause of discord somewhere: 
where it is I will not pretend to say. That it 
does exist is certain ; and I much doubt, whether 
it is likely to be removed by any measures taken 
by the present administration. As to vague and 
general recommendations to us to maintain una- 
nimity amongst us, I must say I think they are 
become, of late years, too flat and stale to bear 
being repeated. That such are the kind senti- 



200 

ments and wishes of our monarch I am far from 
doubting j but, when I consider it as the lan- 
guage of the minister, as a minister's recom- 
mendation, I cannot help thinking it a vain and 
idle parade of words without meaning. Is it in 
their own conduct that we are to look for an 
example of this boasted union ? Shall we discover 
any trace of it in their broken, distracted coun- 
cils, their public disagreements, and private ani- 
mosities ? Is it not notorious, that they subsist 
only by creating divisions among others ? That 
their plan is to separate party from party ? 
Friend from friend ? Brother from brother ? Is 
not their very motto Divide et imperaf When 
such men advise us to unite, what opinion must 
we have of their sincerity ? In the present in- 
stance, however, the speech is particulary farcical. 
When we are told, that affairs abroad are per- 
fectly quiet, consequently, that it is unnecessary 
for us to take any notice of them ; when we are 
told, that there is, indeed, a distress at home, but 
beyond the reach of this house to remedy ; to 
have unanimity recommended to us in the same 
breath, is in my opinion, something lower than 
ridiculous. If the two first propositions be true, 
in the name of wonder, upon what are we to 
debate ? Upon what is it possible for us to dis- 
agree ? On one point our advice is not wanted : 



201 

on the other it is useless : but, it seems, it will 
be highly agreeable to the ministry to have us 
unite in approving of their conduct ; and, if we 
have concord enough amongst ourselves, to keep 
in unison with them and their measures, I dare 
say, that all the purposes of administration, aimed 
at by the address, will be fully answered, and 
entirely to their satisfaction. But this is a sort 
of union, which I hope never will, which, I am 
satisfied, never can prevail in a free parliament 
like ours. While we are freemen we may dis- 
agree ; but when we unite, on the terms recom- 
mended to us by the administration, we must be 
slaves." 

After having now conducted the reader through 
the speech from the throne, and also through Mr. 
Burke's remarks upon it, and on Mr. Conway's 
commentary, it becomes necessary for me, in this 
stage of our inquiry, to state again, that the 
Kind's speech and that of Mr. Burke were both 
spoken on the 24//* of November, 1?67. Four or 
five days after, at the farthest, that is, on the 28tk 
or 29/A of November, Mr. Woodfall, the printer 
of the Public Advertiser, received a communica- 
tion from his private correspondent C. (Junius), 
which led him, on the morning of Monday the 
30th of November, 1767, to insert the following 



202 

notice to his correspondent : " Cs favour is come 
to handy and we think our- paper much honoured by 
his correspondence. He may be assured we shall 
take every possible means to deserve a continuance 
of it" This, the reader will observe, was a mere 
complimentary acknowledgement of the receipt 
of his correspondent's communication. The next 
day, however, that is, on the first of December 
(1767) the following additional notice to his cor- 
respondent C. appeared in the Public Advertiser : 
" We most heartily wish to oblige our valuable cor- 
respondent C, but his last favour is of so delicate 
a nature, that zve dare not insert it, unless we are 
permitted to make such changes in certain expres- 
sions, as may take off the immediate offence, with- 
out hurting the meaning." 

After this notice nothing farther appeared in 
the Public Advertiser, relative to Cs communica- 
tion, until Mr. Woodfall thought proper to give 
it to the public, four days after, that is, on the 
5th of December, after he had sufficient time to 
procure the acquiescence of his correspondent in 
the changes and omissions which he thought it 
necessary to make in the communication, for his 
own safety. On the 5th of December we, accord- 
ingly, find the following letter in the Public Ad- 
vertiser. 



203 

"to the printer of the public advertiser. 

" Mr. Printer, 

" There are a party of us, who, for our amuse- 
ment, have established a kind of political club. 
We mean to give no offence whatever to any 
body in our debates. The following is a mere 
jeu d' esprit, which I threw out at one of our late 
meetings, and it is at your service, if you think it 
will afford the least entertainment to your readers. 

" I am, &c. 
«Y. Z." 

The communication which Y. Z. (or C), in 
this short letter calls a merey<?z* d'esprit, and which 
he asserts to have been spoken by himself at one 
of the late meetings of his political club, is no- 
thing more or less, than the foregoing speech of 
Air. Burke, which, it now appears, was sent to 
Air. Woodfall by his private correspondent C*, 
four or five days after Mr. Burke had spoken it 
in the House of Commons. If we compare the 
copy of the speech printed above, with that which 
appeared in the Public Advertiser, and which is 
now given in the second volume of the new edi- 
tion of Junius, (from p. 499 to p. 509) we shall 

* The reader must bear in mind, that C. was the signature 
always used by Junius, in his private correspondence with 
M r . Woodfall. 



204 



find, that they correspond word for word, and 
line for line, with the two following exceptions ; 
first the substitution of such words as were neces- 
sary to keep up the opinion, that it was spoken, 
not in the House of Commons, but in a political 
club; such as the use of the words committee % 
society, advice from the chair, &c. &c. instead of 
ministry, administration, House of Commons, 
speech from the throne, &c. &c. ; and, secondly, 
the omission of certain parts, which Mr. Wood- 
fall, it seems, was afraid to publish, on account, 
as he thought, of their libellous tendency. He, 
however, placed asterisks *** where those omis- 
sions occurred : and, if the reader will compare 
the copy of the speech, given in the new edition 
of Junius, with that which is copied above, from 
the parliamentary debates, he will find, that the 
parts, left out by Mr. Woodfall, were certainly 
the most severe and pointed in the whole speech. 
These I have included within brackets, as may 
be seen by turning to pages 197, 8, 9, of this 
Inquiry. 

That this speech was the communication, to 
which Mr. Woodfall alluded, in his notices to his 
correspondent C, on the 30th of Nov. and the 
1st of Dec. must be evident, from the delay in 
its appearance for four days after, which gave 
Mr. Woodfall time to obtain leave from C. to 



205 



make the necessary changes; but more fully, 
and, indeed, incontrovertiblv, from the alterations 
and omissions, with which it was at length printed 
in the Public Advertiser. Indeed the omission 
of the parts, to which I have already alluded, is 
quite sufficient to identify it with the communi- 
cation referred to in Mr. Woodfall's notices to 
C. For it must be remembered, that, it was, at 
that time, deemed a breach of privilege, and 
punishable accordingly, to publish a report of 
the speeches of any member of parliament ; it 
being only in the year 177U that the proprietors 
of newspapers were first allowed to publish, with 
the names of the speakers, the speeches of the 
members of either house of parliament. Before 
that time the members, who were anxious to have 
their speeches given to the public, generally sent 
copies of them, (as C. did in this instance) under 
fictitious names and designations, to some of the 
public journals. The danger too, it. ought to be 
remembered, to which the printer knew he was 
exposing himself, must be deemed greater in the 
present instance, than in ordinary cases ; for he 
was aware, that the communication touched upon 
a very delicate subject, and canvassed, not at. all 
in measured language, but with the greatest free- 
dom and boldness, every topic in the King's 
speech. 



206 



It will be also proper to state, that the above 
speech was unquestionably spoken by Mr. Burke 
on the 24th of Nov. 1767, and appears, accord- 
ingly, under his name, in the parliamentary de- 
bates of that time. In an edition of these de- 
bates, published five years after, (that is, in the 
year 1772) now lying before me, it is given in an 
authentic form, as his speech ; that is, with invert- 
ed commas, as it was customary with the collec- 
tors and editors of the parliamentary debates to 
give such speeches (and such only) as they had 
from authority. I ought to add, that, whenever 
they had not the speeches from authority, they 
printed them merely from such fugitive reports, 
as they were able to collect, without any such 
accompanying marks of authenticity. It de- 
serves to be remarked further, that this very 
speech was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, 
for December, 1767 5 under this title — " A curious 
speech spoken at the opening of a late sessions •" 
a circumstance, which completely settles the point 
as to its authenticity. And, besides, it is certain, 
that it was never disclaimed by Mr. Burke, though 
he must have seen it attributed to him in that 
edition of the parliamentary debates, which was 
published by Almon in the year 1772, and in 
several other editions of these debates given after- 
wards to the public, during Mr. Burke's life-time. 



207 

I may be allowed to add, that M'Cormack con- 
sidered it as authentic, for he has given extracts 
from this speech in his life of Mr. Burke. 

From this short detail, therefore, it is clear, 
beyond all possibility of doubt, that this speech 
was spoken by Mr. Burke, on the 24th of Nov. 
1767- It is equally clear, that it was sent, by 
his private correspondent C. (that is, by Junius) 
to Mr. Woodfall. It may be objected, that even 
allowing it to be Mr. Burke's speech, and also 
allowing it to have been sent to Mr. Woodfall 
by Junius, still that this does not identify Junius 
with Mr. Burke. Although this objection has 
certainly no weight with me, I thought it but fair 
to state it, for the satisfaction of my readers. 
That it is entitled to no serious consideration, 
will, I trust, be evident for the following reasons : 
First, C. in his letter to Mr. Woodfall, asserts the 
speech to be his own, (his words are, " which I 
threw out at one of our late meetings") ; which, 
supposing him to be merely the reporter of it, 
he, or indeed any other reporter, could not have 
the presumption of doing, at least without the 
author's consent. Nor, indeed, is it at all pro- 
bable, that Mr. Burke would allow any reporter, 
however friendly, to send to a public journal, as 
his own, a speech spoken by Mr. Burke in the 



208 

hearing of the whole House of Commons, and: 
which all those, who heard it spoken, must imme- 
diately recognize as Mr. Burke's speech, as soon 
as it was given to the public. Besides, from the 
anxiety, which we well know Mr. Burke felt, at 
a subsequent period, (I mean when regular re- 
porters were allowed to go to the gallery of the 
House of Commons) to have his speeches cor- 
rectly reported, we may be satisfied, how impro- 
bable it was, that he could wish another to have 
the credit of a speech, which he well knew must 
be so honourable to himself. I may add further 
on this point, lest any of my readers may still 
think it improbable that Mr. Burke would have 
submitted to the drudgery of reporting, or send- 
ing to the press, a copy of his own speech, that 
he has done so frequently, at a more advanced 
period of his life, when he was much more distin- 
guished, than it was possible for him to be in 
1767, both as a writer, a statesman, and an orator. 
I know it to be a fact, for I have it from the 
respectable editor of one of the most respectable 
of our public journals, that Mr. Burke frequently, 
after having made a speech in the House of 
Commons, came to his house, and wrote a 
report of it while they were taking their wine 
together. Is it at all probable, that the man, 
who was in the habit of imposing so laborious a 



909 

task upon himself*, could be disposed to squander 
away upon others the honour, which, he must 
have very well known, his speeches were calcu- 
lated to confer upon himself? Besides it is foolish, 
in the present instance, to say, that C, or Junius, 
only acted the part of a friendly reporter, in 
sending the speech of another to Mr. Woodfall, 
and calling it his own. For what possible ad- 
vantage can we suppose him to have expected 
from telling the public, that he was the author 
of a speech, which he knew was another's, and 
which all the members of the House of Commons, 
at least, must have known to be Mr. Burke's ? 
Is it not clear, that all those, who heard the 
speech in the House, would, when they saw the 
letter of Y. Z. in the Public Advertiser, in which 
he says it was spoken by himself, infer imme- 

* Burke, almost from the time of his arrival in London, 
was a constant writer in the public journals. " When he had 
entered himself of the Temple (says Bisset) he submitted to 
the drudgery of regularly writing for daily, weekly, and 
monthly publications." (Life of Burke, p. 24.) Bisset also 
informs us, after Mr. Burke's return from Ireland, whither he 
had accompanied Mr. Hamilton, that — "He still occasionally 
wrote political essays in periodical publications. The Public 
Advertiser was then the paper, in which men of literature 
and genius most frequently contributed their efforts. Burke's 
writings in that journal attracted the notice of that worthy 
nobleman, the Marquis of Rockingham, who remarked their 
uncommon ability, and sought the acquaintance of the au- 
thor. He was introduced to the Marquis by Mr. Fitzherbeit, 
father of Lord St. Helens." (Ibid. p. 52.) 
£ £ 



210 



diately, that the letter in question, as well as the 
speech which accompanied it, were sent to the 
printer by Mr. Burke himself? In the second 
place I may remark, as it is most likely, that 
Mr. Burke's speech was sent to Mr. Woodfall, 
not by a reporter, but by himself; so also, sup- 
posing it to have been sent by a mere reporter, 
that it is in the highest degree improbable, that 
Junius was that reporter, unless we, at the same 
time suppose, that Junius was the intimate friend 
of Mr. Burke. We know, that Junius, whoever 
he was, had stores enough within himself, and 
could not, at that time, be so much at a loss for 
subjects for political writing, as to be under the 
necessity of pirating the productions of others, 
and decking himself out in a plumage not his 
own. But, at all events, such were the undoubt- 
ed talents of Junius, that no scholar of candour, 
or reputation, can for a moment think it possible, 
that he would demean himself so much, however 
highly he may be supposed to think of Mr. 
Burke's speech, as to say, for the mere purpose 
of imposing upon Mr. Woodfall, that it was his 
own. Can it be, at all, in the least degree pro- 
bable, supposing them different persons, and un- 
acquainted, that Junius would have condescend- 
ed to become the reporter of Mr. Burke's 
speeches, when we know, that, in all his political 



211 



writings, he has scarcely taken any notice of 
Mr. Burke ? This opinion is further confirm- 
ed, by the following extracts from his private 
letters to Mr. Woodfall, which show incontro- 
vertibly, how indignant he was at finding, that 
some essays, written by others, were mistaken for 
his by the public. " As I do not choose to an- 
swer for any body's sins but my own, I must 
desire you to say to-morrow — ' We can assure 
the public, that the letter signed A. B. relative to 
the Duke of Rutland, is not written by the author 
of Junius.' I sometimes change my signature, 
but could have no reason to change the paper, 
especially for one that does not circulate half so 
much as yours." (Private letters, No. 13.) In a 
previous letter (No. 11) he requested Mr. Wood- 
fall to reprint this letter signed A. B.; hinting at 
the same time, that it was not his own. " I 
should be much obliged to you, if you would re- 
print a letter in the London Evening Post of last 
night, to the Duke of Grafton. If it had not 
been anticipated, I should have touched upon the 
subject myself. However it is not ill-done, and 
it is very material, that it should spread." On 
another occasion he addresses Mr. Woodfall as 
follows : <c By your affected silence you encourage 
an idle opinion, that I am the author of the 
IV/i/u;, &c. though you very well know the cou 



212 

trary. I neither admire the writer, nor his idol. 
I hope you will soon set this matter right." (Pri- 
vate letters, No 23.) 

If, however, after all, I should admit, which I 
certainly do not, that no more is proved by the 
preceding documents, than that Junius was 
merely the reporter of Mr. Burke's speech, it is 
pretty clear, that he must have been one of Mr. 
Burke's friends, when he would undertake such 
trouble for him, but more particularly from the 
circumstance of his saying, that the speech was 
his oxvn; for can any scholar, for a moment, think 
it in the least degree probable, that Junius, to 
whom it could answer no purpose whatever of 
fame or of profit, would disgrace himself by as- 
suming the merit of Mr. Burke's speech, without 
his consent ? If any persons are bona fide cre- 
dulous enough to believe this in any degree pro- 
bable, I don't know, that it is possible to say any 
thing, by which they would be undeceived. At 
all events, when the conclusions suggested by 
these last documents are coupled with those aris- 
ing from the numerous examples of similarity of 
style and coincidence of opinion, which the reader 
has already seen ; but more particularly, when it 
is remembered, that the coincidence, as I have 
incontrovertibly shown, extends even to their 



213 

very faults and defects, I am persuaded, that the 
result of the whole, in every fair and candid mind, 
will be a full conviction, that the letters of Junius 
were written by Mr. Burke. 

When I undertook to prove, that Mr. Burke 
was Junius, I was fully aware, though I was not 
literally disturbing a nest of hornets, that a 
publication like the present must expose me to 
considerable censure and odium. The enemies 
of Mr. Burke would not wish him to have the 
honour of being the author ; and I know, from 
authentic sources, that his nearest relatives and 
friends, satisfied with the reputation which he had 
acquired by his acknowledged works, did not at 
all desire to see him invested with any additional 
literary honours, at least with any that had their 
origin in the present source. I was, besides, per- 
suaded, that, even with respect to many, whomight 
be considered as neutral so far as Mr. Burke's 
claims were concerned, I was touching upon very 
tender ground, or rather disturbingcinders in which 
the remains of former heat were not as yet quite 
extinguished. From my own experience I knew, 
that the subject of Junius was a very delicate 
one j which, if I touched upon it at all, must 
be approached not with a trembling, but with a 
bold and decisive hand. A host of prejudices 
must be encountered, and if the attack was a 



214 



timorous, or a cautious one, they were not very 
likely to give way. The opinions, which most 
persons had formed on the subject, being diffe- 
rent from my own, presented, on that account, 
more formidable obstacles to my undertaking: and 
though I was satisfied that most of these opinions 
were mere prejudices, being founded on no one 
single plausible reason whatever, I was still fully 
aware, that this served only to make them less 
tractable, and as they were cherished with no less 
partiality, that it was as dangerous to attempt to 
overturn them, as it would be the most sacred 
tenet of the owner's religious faith. What then 
was to be done ? Was the truth not to be hazard- 
ed, or told, because it was likely to disturb deep- 
rooted prejudices, and to give offence to interest- 
ed friends, as well as to malicious and bigotted 
enemies ? This, I thought, would be a cowardly 
and an ungenerous proceeding. I, therefore, de- 
termined to give truth fair play, to whatever con- 
sequences it might lead. I was aware, that 
some of them must be disagreeable ; but I knew 
also, that something must be hazarded in almost 
every exertion of public duty. 

The writer of the Preliminary Essay in the 
new edition, after he has read the preceding de- 
tails, will, I think, scarcely maintain, that Mr. 
Burke could not write in the style of Junius j or, if 



21, 



he is determined to stick to that opinion, will, I 
am persuaded, have but few followers. From 
the peculiar advantages, which he certainly pos- 
sessed, lor forming a correct opinion on the sub- 
ject, being in possession of various documents 
calculated to facilitate such an inquiry, it does 
not appear, at least, if we are to judge from his 
labours on the present occasion, that he is a 
person, who is at all likely to guide the public 
judgment in any thing that regards style. Ac- 
quainted as he ought to be, in order to give a 
good edition of Junius, with the political history 
and writings of the period, during which that 
author wrote in the Public Advertiser, it is not a 
little strange, that he should be ignorant, that 
the speech, which he gives us as one of the com- 
munications of Junius, was in reality the speech 
of Mr. Burke. When so important a fact could 
escape his notice, we cannot be surprised, if we 
find him wrong in other particulars, or reasoning 
feebly or erroneously with regard to the claims 
of Mr. Burke. 

The other proofs, (few of them deserve the 
name) on which he relies to show, that Mr. Burke 
was not Junius, have indeed little weight. Mr. 
Burke " could not have consented (he thinks) to 
disparage his own talents in the manner, in which 



216 



Junius has disparaged them" in the following 
passage : " I willingly accept of a sarcasm from 
Colonel Barre, or a simile from Mr. Burke" 
For my part, I am really at a loss to see any thing 
at all so very disparaging, as this writer supposes, 
in the passage in question. But supposing it, 
for a moment, to be fully as disparaging as he 
could wish, could he see no good reason for its 
use ? Was he not aware of the purpose, which 
it was calculated to answer, on the supposition, 
that Mr. Burke was Junius ? Or, at all events, 
ought he not to have remembered, how pointedly 
this same Junius retorted the raillery, which was 
thrown upon the shabby black coat of Mr. Burke, 
by one of his own opponents ; or, if this could 
not satisfy him, did he forget, that this very Ju- 
nius, at no time a spendthrift of his praise, had 
furnished an antidote to his own poison, in the 
following passage, in one of his letters to Mr. 
Wilkes ; so that, if his left-hand inflicted a wound, 
his right was immediately ready to apply the 
balm ? " If you mean, that the Americans should 
be authorised to send their representatives to the 
British parliament, / shall be contented with re- 
ferring you to what Mr. Burke has said upon this 
subject, and will not venture to add any thing of 
my own, for fear of discovering an offensive dis- 
regard of your opinion." (Vol. i. p.* 293.) The 



817 

praise contained in this passage, to say the least 
oi' it, is to the full as flattering, as the other was 
disparaging or mortifying. 

But, although it has escaped the notice of the 
New Editor, I can see very clearly, that the pas- 
sage in question, supposing Mr. Burke to be the 
author, was well calculated to lay suspicion, and 
to promote one object, of which Junius never lost 
sight, and upon which he seems to have been all 
along as intent, as upon any other, his own per- 
sonal concealment. Junius knew, that, Mr. Burke 
was more suspected than any body else, for being 
the writer of the letters; and, if we suppose him 
the real author, a slighting reflection upon 
himself from the pen of Junius, Burke was well 
aware, would be one of the most effectual modes, 
at that time, for discountenancing such an opi- 
nion. It was the interest of Junius, as well as 
his most anxious desire, that his concealment 
should be as impenetrable as possible. It was 
well calculated tor carrying on the war, which he 
waged, in the best and most expeditious manner, 
and to ensure, what must be still dearer to him, 
his own personal security*. A discovery of the 
writer would frustrate the great objects he had iu 

* See Junius, vol. i. p.*3l4. 
F F 



218 



view in the publication of his letters, and expose 
him, besides, to much enmity, perhaps to unavoid- 
able danger. In such circumstances, therefore, 
it would be in the highest degree prudent in Mr. 
Burke, if he was Junius, when he knew, that he 
was so strongly suspected, to talk more slightingly 
of himself even than Junius did in the passage 
in question. Knowing, that he was anxiously 
and incessantly pursued, he must be aware, that 
to make any reflection upon himself was, in effect, 
to start new game, which would either divert the 
course of the hunters by crossing the original 
scent, or, by thus making it more difficult to 
trace it, give it time to cool, which would check 
the rapidity of their progress, and ultimately 
break up the pursuit. 

It is worthy of remark, that the compliment 
paid to Burke, in the letter to Mr. Wilkes, was 
written one month sooner than the letter, which 
contains the slighting reflection upon him. The 
letter to Mr. Wilkes, containing the former, was 
dated on the 7th of September, 1771, whilst the 
letter in the Public Advertiser, in which the 
latter occurs, is dated on the 5th of October the 
same year. It is also worthy of remark, that 
both these are the only instances in which Junius 
takes any notice of Mr. Burke j and, as he 



219 

complimented him in the first instance, it is but 
fair to suppose, that Junius was well affected 
towards him. But what could be his reason for 
so suddenly altering his opinion, as to pass to 
censure from panegyric, in the short space of 
twenty-eight days ? In his public letters w r e can 
find no motive, or inducement ; but, if I am not 
much deceived, we shall be able to account satis- 
factorily for this change, if we examine his pri- 
vate letters to Mr. Woodfall and Mr. Wilkes. 

That Junius was very anxious to conceal him- 
self, and exceedingly alarmed at any attempts 
which were made to penetrate his secret, will 
appear from the following extracts. When Sir 
William Draper challenges him to produce his 
person, he tells him — " As to me, it is by no 
means necessary, that I should be exposed to the 
resentment of the worst and most powerful men 
in this country, though I ma}' be indifferent 
about yours. Though you would , fight, there are 
others, who would assassinate.'" (Sept. 25, 1769.) 
In his first private letter to Mr. Woodfall, he 
says — " If any inquiry is made about these 
papers, I shall rely on your giving me a hint." 
(April 20, 1769.) "I have received the favour of 
your note. From the contents of it, I imagine 
you may have something to communicate to me ; 
if that be the case, I beg you will be particular ; 



220 

and also, that you will tell me candidly, whether 
you know, or suspect who I am." (July 15, 1769.) 
In another private letter of the 21st of the same 
month, he says — " That Swinney is a wretched, 
but a dangerous fool. He had the impudence to 
go to Lord George Sackville, whom he had never 
spoken to, and to ask him whether, or no, he was 
the author of Junius. Take care of hi?n." On 
the loth of September the same year, he writes 
to his correspondent : " As to me be assured, that 
it is not in the nature of things, that they, or 
you, or any body else should ever know me, un- 
less I make myself known. All arts, or inquiries, 
or rewards, would be equally ineffectual." Again, 
(Nov. 12, 1769) " I return you the letters you 
sent me yesterday. A man who can neither 
write common English, nor spell, is hardly worth 
attending to. It is probably a trap for me. I 
should be glad, however, to know what the fool 
means. *** Instead of C, in the usual place, 
say only a Letter, when you have occasion to 
write to me again. I shall understand you." On 
the 26th of December he tells Mr. Woodfall — 
" I doubt much, whether I shall ever have the 
pleasure of knowing you ; but if things take the 
turn I expect, you shall know me by my works." 
"You must not (says he on the 12th of Jan. 1770) 
write to me again, but be assured I will never 
desert you. I received your letters regularly, 



221 

but it was impossible to answer them sooner." 
In the beginning of February he addresses him 
thus: "When you consider to what excessive 
enmities I may be exposed, you will not wonder 
at my caution. ' I really have not known how to 
procure your last." We find the following letter 
under the date of the 2d of Jan. 1771 : " I have 
received your mysterious epistle. I dare say a 
letter may safely be left at the same place ; but 
you may change the direction to Mr. John Tret- 
ley. You need not advertise it." "Our corres- 
pondence (says he again on the 1 1 th of Feb. 1 77 1) 
is attended with difficulties, yet I should be glad 
to see the paper you mention. Let it be left to- 
morrow, without further notice.'" And, on the 
21st of the same month — " It will be very diffi- 
cult, if not impracticable, for me to get your 
note." " I have not been able to get yours from 
that place, but you shall hear from me soon." 
(Sept. 25, 1771.) From all these extracts it is 
clear, that Junius laboured under great difficul- 
ties, iu his correspondence with Mr. Woodfall, 
and that he was under a continual apprehension 
of being discovered. There was no period, how- 
ever, at which he was more alarmed than towards 
the end of the year 1771. This will be made 
evident by the following extracts. I find these 
words in a letter addressed to Mr. Wilkes on the 



222 



7th of Sept. 1771. "As Junius, I can never 
expect to be rewarded. The secret is too im- 
portant to be committed to any great man's 
discretion. If views of interest or ambition could 
tempt me to betray my own secret, how could I 
flatter myself, that the man I trusted would not 
act upon the same principles, and sacrifice me at 
once to the King's curiosity and resentment ? " 
" When you send to me, (says he to Mr. Wood- 
fall on the 11th of Nov. 1771) instead of the 
usual signal, say, Vindex shall be considered, and 
keep the alteration a secret to every body." And 
on the 17th of December — " Upon no account, 
nor for any reason whatsoever, are you to write 
to me, u?itil I give you notice" 

There seems to have been no person, at whose 
attempts to discover him he was more alarmed, 
than at those of Mr. Garrick towards the con- 
clusion of the year 1771- Garrick, it appears, 
took great pains for that purpose, and Junius, 
being aware of it, was constantly cautioning Mr. 
Woodfall to be on his guard against him. His 
private letters on these occasions betray his fears 
of being discovered more strongly, than at any 
other period. " Shew the Dedication and Pre- 
face (said he on the 8th of Nov. 1771) to Mr. 
Wilkes, and, if he has any material objection, let 



223 

me know. I say material, because of the diffi- 
culty of getting your letter." " Beware of 
David Garrick, he was sent to pump you, and 
went directly to Richmond to tell the King I 
should write no more." Two days after he 
wrote again to Mr. Woodfall on the same sub- 
ject, inclosing the following letter. 

w TO MR. DAVID GARRICK. 

Nov. 10, 1771. 

" I am very exactly informed of your imper- 
tinent inquiries and of the information you so 
busily sent to Richmond, and with what triumph 
and exultation it was received. I knew every 
particular of it the next day. Now mark me, 
vagabond : keep to your pantomimes, or be 
assured you shall hear of it. Meddle no more, 
thou busy informer ! It is in my power to make 
you curse the hour, in which you dared to inter- 
fere with 

" Junius. 1 * 

To Mr. Woodfall he says : — " I would send 
the above to Garrick directly, but that I would 
avoid having this hand too commonly seen. Ob- 
lige me, then, so much as to have it copied in 
any hand, and sent by the penny-post, that is if 



224 

you dislike sending it in your own writing. / 
must be more cautious than ever. I am sure I 
should not survive a discovery three days j or, if 
1 did, they would attaint me by bill. Change to 
the Somerset Coffee-house, and let no mortal know 
the alteration. I am persuaded you are too honest 
a man to contribute in any zvay to my destruction. 
Act honourably by me, and at a proper time you 
shall know me." In a few days after he writes 
thus : — " I have no doubt of what you say about 
David Garrick, so drop the note. The truth is, 
that, in order to curry favour, he made himself a 
greater rascal than he was. Depend upon what 
I tell you : — the King understood, that he had 
found out the secret by his own cunnirg and acti- 
vity. As it is important to deter him from med- 
dling, I desire you will tell him, that I am aware 
of his practices, and will certainly be revenged if 
he does not desist. An appeal to the public from 
Junius woidd destroy him" " Upon reflection I 
think it absolutely necessary to send that note 
to D. G. only say practices instead of impertinent 
inquiries. " I think you have no measures to 
keep with a man, who could betray a confiden- 
tial letter, for so base a purpose, as pleasing 
*****." On the 27th of the same month he 
remarks again : — " Though we may not be 
deficient in point of capacity, it is very possible, 



mi 



that neither of us may be cunning enough for 
Mr. Garrick." And at the end of the same 
letter : — " David Garrick has literally forced 
me to break my resolution of writing no more." 
" The London Packet (says he on the 17th of 
Dec. 1771) is not worth our notice. I suspect 
Garrick, and I would have you hint so to him." 

From all these extracts it is manifest, that 
Junius was at all times apprehensive of being 
discovered, but more particularly so,' through the 
exertions of Garrick, about the end of the year 
1771. Mr. Burke, we know, lived on the most 
intimate terms with Garrick, and must have been 
well acquainted with his anxiety and exertions 
to discover the author of Junius. If, therefore, 
we couple these considerations with the fact, that 
Junius, in less than a month after he had com- 
plimented him, threw out, without any apparent 
reason, or necessity for it, a slighting observation 
upon Mr. Burke, remembering, at the same 
time, that it was done, at a period, during which, 
we know, that Junius was particularly afraid of 
a discovery, and alarmed for his own safety, it 
will, I am persuaded, afford a very strong pre- 
sumptive proof of the identity of Junius and 
Mr. Burke. At a time when he was so much 
afraid of being detected, such a slighting remark 
G g 



226 



upon himself, was an excellent contrivance for 
checking the strong current of public suspicion, 
and for diverting it, out of the line of its former 
course, into a new channel. 

It being clear, therefore, that concealment 
was all along a main object with Junius, and 
more particularly so about the time when he 
reflected on Mr. Burke, it is obvious, that the 
latter, supposing him to be the author, and 
smarting under the fear of detection, would 
readily have flung the reflection in question, or, 
indeed, one much severer, upon himself, to se- 
cure its attainment. The remark, therefore, of 
the new editor, that Mr. Burke " could not have 
consented to have disparaged," [to disparage] 
" his own talents, in the manner, in which 
Junius has disparaged them" — in the passage in 
question, has no weight as an argument, and is, 
therefore, entitled to no consideration. 

The next argument of the gentleman, who 
asserts positively, that " Burke could not 
have written in the style of Junius, which was 
precisely the reverse of his own" — is, that he 
denied his being the author " expressly and sa- 
tisfactorily to Sir William Draper, who purposely 
interrogated him upon the subject/' When one 



227 

hears such folly as this brought forward as an 
argument upon the present subject, it is difficult 
to avoid laughing. Junius, in his public letters, 
told Sir William Draper, that he should never 
know him, not that he concealed himself from 
any apprehension of the effects of Sir William's 
resentment. If Burke was the author, is it at 
all probable, that he would be afterwards induced 
to give the lie to his own former declaration, and 
to become the trumpeter of his own secret (a 
secret which Junius was so anxious to preserve) 
for no other purpose, but to gratify the imper- 
tinent curiosity of Sir William Draper ? I call 
it an impertinent curiosity, because it is obvious, 
that no man, attacked as Sir William was by 
Junius, had a right to put the question to any 
gentleman -, as it was in effect to say : — " con- 
fess, that you have, without cause or provocation, 
wantonly attacked my character, and maliciously 
stabbed me in the dark. I want you to declare, 
that you have been to me a bitter enemy, and 
then I shall be able to punish you as I think fit, 
and fully to gratify my resentment." If Sir 
William, therefore, was to put the question to 
the real author, whether Mr. Burke was Junius 
or not, it is clear, that he, at least, could not 
reasonably expect to be answeied in the affirma- 
tive : and, if the new editor is sanguine enough 



228 



to hope, that he should, I think I may safely 
affirm, that few of those, who read the private 
letters of Junius, will join in his expectation. 
For my part, when I consider the constant 
anxiety under which Junius laboured through 
fear of detection, so far am I from thinking the 
denial of Mr. Burke satisfactory, or, indeed, that 
of any man whom I could suspect to be the 
author, that I should be rather disposed to draw 
a very different inference from it, and to say (in 
the words of Junius) to my present opponent, or 
to any person so interested as Sir William Dra- 
per was, who could put such a question as his, 
and expect an answer in the affirmative, — 
<c how can you reconcile such gross folly with an 
understanding so full of artifice as mine ?" Is it 
possible, that any man possessing a clear and 
impartial judgment, after considering the ex- 
tracts made in the preceding pages from his pri- 
vate letters, shewing, that the most anxious 
desire of his soul was concealment, can for a 
moment suppose, that Junius, whoever he was, 
would become the betrayer of his own secret ? 
Is it not rather manifest, when his fears of detec- 
tion were so great, that his answer to any per- 
son, who should take the liberty of interrogating 
him purposely on the subject, as Mr. Burke was 
interrogated by Sir William Draper, would be 



229 

decidedly in the negative. Mr. Burke's deny- 
ing, therefore, that he was the author, when all 
the circumstances are considered, particularly 
the imminent peril, which a discovery would 
bring upon his fortune and his life, will not pass 
for a proof of the least weight with any mind 
that considers the point, with candour and im- 
partiality. 

As the argument, which I have been contro- 
verting, has had some countenance from the 
opinion of Dr. Johnson, as recorded by Boswell, 
it will be proper to notice that opinion here. 
Many of Burke's friends, among the rest John- 
son, supposed him to be the author of Junius, as 
being the only man, whom they knew capable of 
the performance. " I should (said he) have be- 
lieved Burke to be Junius, because I know no 
man but Burke, who is capable of writing these 
letters ; but Burke spontaneously denied it to 
me : The case would have been different, had 
I asked him if he was the author. A man may 
think he has a right to deny it, when so ques- 
tioned, as to an anonymous publication." And 
most undoubtedly so he has ; for, were it not 
allowable for an author to deny it, when so ques- 
tioned, without any violation of truth, it could 
serve no purpose to make the publication anony- 



'230 



mous in the first instance, and would therefore 
be foolish, as it would be in the power of any 
inquisitive, or impertinent person, to extort the 
author's secret from him and give it to the 
public. And, in truth, were this not allowable, 
without being deemed a direct breach of vera- 
city, the bad consequences would reach even 
farther ; as it would not be in any man's power, 
if-directly questioned, to keep any secret what- 
ever, however delicate or important. 

Johnson's inference from Burke's spontaneous 
denial, when all the circumstances brought to 
light by the publication of the private corres- 
pondence of Junius are considered, is neither 
conclusive or satisfactory. Burke knowing, that 
he was suspected more than any body else, may, 
if he was the author, deny it even spontaneously 
to Johnson -, and very naturally too, when we 
consider the fears of Junius. He knew himself 
to be suspected by his friend, and was aware, if 
Johnson often declared that suspicion in conver- 
sation, that his authority would give it a more 
accredited and general currency. To deny it, 
therefore, spontaneously to the Doctor, was a 
good way to alter his opinion, and was well calcu- 
lated to set suspicion (a great object with Junius) 
at rest. It was an artful way of coming upon 



231 



his friend unawares, and in an unsuspecting 
moment, and served to convert him from an 
instrument of discovery into a cloak for conceal- 
ment. I shall conclude this point by citing the 
opinion of Bisset, who agrees with me on the 
subject. " Even spontaneous disavowal of a 
performance,, by many imputed to him, and of 
which the supposition of his being the writer 
might have exposed him to prosecution, is not 
disproof." Junius himself was of opinion, that a 
discovery would expose him not merely to a pro- 
secution, but to the resentment of the worst 
and most powerful men in the kingdom, and also 
to attainder and assassination. Would not 
Burke, would not any writer, from motives of 
personal security, and to avoid such consequences, 
even spontaneously deny such a performance? 
That Junius would readily do so is obvious even 
from his public letters, but more fully and incon- 
trovertibly from those passages, which I have ex- 
tracted from his private correspondence. The 
spontaneous denial of Burke to Johnson, is, 
therefore, of no more weight than his disavowal 
of the letters to Sir William Draper. 

But my opponent has a new argument ready, 
which he brings forward as an auxiliary, by say- 
ing, that the truth of Mr. Burke's denial to Sir 



232 

William Draper, " is, moreover corroborated by 
the testimony of the late Mr. Woodfall, who re- 
peatedly declared, that neither of them (Burke, 
or Mr. Hamilton) were the writers (was the 
writer) of these compositions." This argument, 
in the hands of the new editor is, if possible, still 
more feeble than either of the preceding, for he 
has contrived, by his inconsistency, to strip it 
of whatever plausibility it might otherwise pos- 
sess. The matter, in a few words, amounts only 
to this : Either Mr. Woodfall knew directly and 
positively, who Junius was, or his knowledge on 
this point was confined to suspicions and conjec- 
tures. In the former case his declaration would 
be decisive ; but, in the latter, not of more weight, 
than that of any other person, unless he support- 
ed it by better facts, and by reasons more plau- 
sible, or better founded. That he did not know 
directly, who Junius was, at the time this writer 
ceased to correspond with him (that is, on the 
19th of January, 1773) is clear from the private 
letters ; nor have we any reason to suppose, that 
Junius ever revealed himself to him. Indeed, 
were there any doubt on this point, it is wholly 
removed by the Editor himself, who, after bring- 
ing in, at page 101 of the Preliminary Essay, 
Mr. Woodfall's repeated declarations, as a make- 
weight in his argument, or rather wholly to turn 






the balance, tells us, with all simplicity imagin- 
able, in the 150th page of the same essay, that 
Mr. Woodfall admitted, that he zcas not abso- 
lutely certain who zvas the author of the Letters*. 
Thus then, from his own admission, it is clear, 
that Mr. Woodfall knew no more about the 
author, than any body else, though, no doubt, he 
had his suspicions and conjectures. What these 
were, or upon what foundations they rested, is 
not once even hinted at in the new edition ; so 
that it is not in our power to ascertain, whether 
they were well or ill-founded. But, at all events, 
as Mr. Woodfall did not know absolutely, who 
the author was, it is clear, that his negative de- 
claration proves nothing in the present argu- 
ment. 

Another argument, with which we are favour- 
ed on this point, by the new Editor, is, " that 
Mr. Burke, in correcting his manuscripts for the 
press, and revising them in their passage through 
it, was notorious for the numerous alterations he 
was perpetually making, whilst the copy, with 
which the late Mr. Woodfall was furnished by 
Junius, for the genuine edition of his Letters, con- 
tained very few amendments of any kind/' One 

* The same admission is made at pp. 51-5, and 153 of the 
same essay. 

II H 



'234 



would be apt to imagine, from the use of the word 
manuscripts in the beginning of this passage, 
that Junius furnished Mr. Woodfall with a ma- 
nuscript copy of the whole of the letters for the 
genuine edition, containing very few amend- 
ments. This, however, was, by no means, the 
case. He sent him the preface and dedication 
ojilij in manuscript; and, lor the remainder of 
the work, contented himself with a printed copy 
of the letters, adding some corrections and notes 
in the margin, and at the bottom of the pages. 
The manuscript copy of the Preface and Dedi- 
cation, is, indeed, beautifully written, and with 
few amendments. But could it not occur to the 
Editor, before he used such a feeble argument as 
the present, that the difficulties under which 
Junius laboured in corresponding with Mr. 
Woodfall were so great, that it would be almost 
impossible for him to have papers constantly 
passing backwards and forwards between them, 
without being frequently exposed to detection ? 
To avoid this therefore, a man of less cunning 
than Junius must be aware, that his best plan 
was to make his manuscripts, in the first instance, 
as correct as possible. We find them, accord- 
ingly, though evidently in a disguised hand, very 
correctly and legibly written, so that it was not 
to be expected, that the printer would leave 



235 



many errors of the press, or make it necessary 
for the author to revise all the proofs himself. 
But, surely Mr. Burke never shewed greater 
anxiety to have his works correctly printed, than 
Junius does in his private letters to Mr. Wood- 
fall ; so that if we are at all to draw an argu- 
ment from this source, it will be strongly in 
favour of the identity of both these writers. 
If Mr. Burke took great pains in correcting and 
altering his manuscripts and proofs, as we know 
he did, we have it upon record, though the 
Editor must have forgotten it when he used the pre- 
ceding argument, that the works of Junius were 
equally laboured. " Is there (says he) no labour in 
the composition of these letters f Mr. Home, I 
fear, is partial to me, and measures the facility of 
my writings, by the fluency of his own." The fol- 
lowing extracts are from his private letters to Mr. 
Woodfall : — " I wish the inclosed to be an- 
nounced to-morrow conspicuously for Tuesday. 
/ am not capable of writing any tiling more finish- 
ed." " I am now meditating a capital, and, I 
hope, a final piece; you shall hear of it shortly." 
" / am strangely partial to the inclosed j it is 
finished with the utmost care. If I find myself 
mistaken in my judgment of this paper, I positively 
will never write again." " At last I have con- 
cluded my great work, and, I assure you, with 



1236 



no small labour.' 1 These extracts are sufficient 
to prove, that he took great pains in the compo- 
sition of his Letters. The following will show, 
that his manuscripts underwent many correc- 
tions and alterations, after which it was his rule 
to have a fair copy made out for the printer. 
Speaking- of one of his letters, he says, to Mr. 
Woodfall — " You shall have it some time to- 
morrow night. It cannot be corrected and copied 
sooner. I mean to make it worth printi?ig." 
" The inclosed, though begun within these few 
days, has been greatly laboured. It is very cor- 
rectly copied, and I beg you will take care, that it 
be literally printed as it stands. yi It was impos- 
sible for Mr. Burke, or indeed for any man, to 
show more anxiety about having his works cor- 
rectly printed, or to manifest a greater aversion 
to errata, than Junius does in his private letters. 
This will be evident from the following extracts. 
*' I wish it were possible for you to print the 
inclosed to-morrow. Observe the italics strictly 
where they are marked." " The paper is ex- 
tremely well printed, and has a good effect." 
" For material affection, for God's sake, read 
maternal j it is in the sixth paragraph. The rest 
is excellently done." " Your correction was per- 
fectly right, the sense required it, and I am much 
obliged to you. When I spoke of innumerable 



237 

blunders, I meant Newberry's pamphlet ; for 1 
must confess, that, upon the whole, your papers 
are very correctly printed/' " Mr. Newberry 
having thought proper to reprint my Letters, I 
wish, at least, he had done it correctly. You 
will oblige me by giving him the following hint 
to-morrow." " Mr. Newberry having thought 
proper to reprint Junius's Letters, might, at 
least, have corrected the errata." After this 
follows a list of errata, to which he subjoins 
to Mr. Woodfall — " I did not expect more 
than the life of a newspaper ; but if this man 
will keep me alive, let me live without being 
offensive." " Pray make an erratum for ultimate 
in the paragraph about the Duke of Grafton ; 
it should be intimate. The rest is very correct." 
So minute was the attention of Junius as to the 
correctness and neatness of his works, that he 
lectures his correspondent sometimes even upon 
the size of his types. " I am convinced that the 
book will sell, and I suppose, will make two 
volumes. The type might be one size larger than 
Wheble's. But of all this you are the best judge." 
" The paper and type should, at least, be as good 
as Wheble's. You must correct the press your 
self ; but I should be glad to see corrected proofs 
of the two first sheets. Shew the Dedication and 
Preface to Mr. Wilkes, and, if he has any mat::- 



238 



rial objection, let me know. I say material, 
because of the difficulty of getting your letter." 
" I think the second page, with the widest lines, 
looks best. What is your essential reason for 
the change ? I send you some more sheets. I 
tliink the paper is not so good as Wheble's, but 
I may be mistaken — The type is good/' " In 
page 25, it should be the instead of your. This 
is a woeful mistake. Pray take care for the 
future. Keep a page for errata." " You must 
then take care of it yourself, except that I must 
see proof sheets of the Dedication and Preface/' 
" It is essential, that I should have a proof sheet 
and correct it myself." " Your failing to send 
me the proofs, as you engaged to do, disappoints 
and distresses me extremely.. . It is not merely 
to correct the press, (though even that is of con- 
sequence), but for another most material pur- 
pose. This will be entirely defeated, if you do not 
let me have the two proofs on Monday morning." 
" I return you the proof, with the errata, which 
you will be so good as to correct carefully. I 
have the greatest reason to be pleased with your 
care and attention." " In the Preface, page 20, 
line 7 3 read unseasonable. Page 26, line 18, 
read accuracy?' His care extends even to the 
proper placing of a note of admiration. M There 
is no occasion for a mark of admiration at the 



2S9 

end of the motto. But it is of no moment what- 
soever." The following is the last extract which 
I shall make on this subject : — " I have no view 
but to serve you, and consequently, have only 
to desire, that the Dedication and Preface may 
be correct. Look to it. If you take it upon 
yourself, I will not forgive your suffering it to be 
spoiled. I weigh every word ; and every altera- 
tion, in my eyes at least, is a blemish." 

Such were the minute attention and editorial 
cares of Junius: and such was the man, who, it 
is expected, we should believe, took less trouble 
in correcting his manuscripts for the press, and 
who was less anxious about the revision of proofs, 
or to have his works correctly printed, than Mr. 
Burke. For my part I do not believe, that there 
is an instance upon record of a greater anxiety 
in all these respects, than that which is manifest- 
ed in the preceding extracts. Mr. Burke's 
anxiety in the same way is so well known, as to 
be almost proverbial ; so that, instead of being 
an argument against him, it would be difficult 
to select a topic better fitted to identify him 
with Junius. 

Those who remember how eagerly Mr. Burke 
desired, that his Reflections on (he French Revo- 



240 



lution should be published on a certain day, and 
how great were his mortification and disappoint- 
ment, when it could not be effected, will find in 
it an additional circumstance to identify him 
with Junius, who was equally solicitous about 
the publication of the first edition of his Letters 
by Mr. Woodfall, before the meeting of Parlia- 
ment. This will appear satifactorily in the fol- 
lowing passages. He wished the work to appear 
in the second week of January, 1 77- ? and, being 
disappointed in this, says to his correspondent, 
on the 18th of that month : — " I am truly con- 
cerned to see, that the publication of the book 
is so long delayed. It ought to have appeared 
before the meeting of Parliament *. By no means 
would I have you insert this long letter, if it 
made more than the difference of two days in 
the publication. Believe me, the delay is a real 
injury to the cause."" On the 25th he says : 
" I am impatient for the book." And on the 
10th of February : cc The delay of the book 
spoils every thing." Again, on the seventeenth 
of the same month : " Surely you have mis- 
judged it very much about the book. I could 
not have conceived it possible, that you could 
protract the publication so long. At this time, 

* It was for the same reason that Mr. Burke was so anxious 
about the publication of his Reflections on the French Revolution. 



241 



particularly before Mr. Saw bridge's motion, it 
would have been of singular use. You have 
trifled too long with the public expectation. At 
a certain point of time the appetite palls. I 
fear you have already lost the season. The 
book, I am sure, will lose the greatest part of 
the effect 1 expected from it. But I have done/' 
He writes to him again, on the 2 c 2d, and con- 
cludes his letter thus : " All I can now say is, 
make haste with the book." " I am glad (says 
he again on the 29th), that the book will be out 
before Sawbridge's motion." And, on the 3d 
of March — " I was impatient to see the book, 
and think 1 had a right to that attention a little 
before the general publication." 

Another proof, adduced by the author of the 
Preliminary Essay, to show, that Mr. Burke 
was not Junius, is drawn from the prosecution 
for a libel, instituted in 1?83 against Mr. Wood- 
fall by Mr. Burke, on account of some para- 
graphs in the Public Advertiser. Considerable 
interest, he tells us, had been made with Mr. 
Burke, to induce him to drop this prosecution in 
different stages of its progress, but to no pur- 
pose. Mr. Woodfall was found guilty, and ob- 
liged to pay jClOO. damages to the prosecutor. 
Our author thinks it morally impossible, that 
i i 



'242 



Junius could have acted in this manner. My 
notion of moral impossibility is not quite so re- 
fined as that of this writer. So far am I from 
thinking it impossible, that such a proceeding on 
the part of Junius does not strike me even as 
improbable. The articles in the Public Advertiser, 
which gave rise to the prosecution, were cer- 
tainly libellous, and calculated to bring consi- 
derable odium upon Mr. Burke and his family. 
His prosecution of Mr. Woodfall is not a proof, 
that he was very ho?tilely disposed towards him. 
But he had no other way of setting himself right 
with the public, or of punishing the author, but 
through the printer. Might he not also suspect, 
that the author of the libel, in case the printer 
was found guilty, would probably indemnify 
Mr. Woodfall for the damages and the expences 
of the suit ? Or, putting even this consideration 
out of the question, would it not occur to him, 
that the exclusive copy-right of the Letters of 
Junius, and the profits arising from it, which 
even before that time must have been consider- 
able, were a sufficient recompence for all Mr, 
Woodfall's trouble and expences ? It is, besides, 
worthy of remark, that such a prosecution, if it 
was conducted, as this author tells us, with the 
utmost acrimony, was calculated to discounte- 
nance, at the time, the opinion, that he was the 



243 



author of the Letters, which, it is well known, 
that Mr. Burke was at considerable pains to 
effect. Of all the persons, to whom the Letters 
have been attributed, he alone betrayed mani- 
fest uneasiness and displeasure, when any body 
hinted, that he was the author ; not, surely, be- 
cause he was of opinion, that the composition 
and undoubted merit of the letters could be any 
disgrace to him.' Upon one occasion it is known, 
that he left an agreeable party shortly after a 
hint thrown out by one of the company, who 
was an acquaintance of his, that he was the 
author, and, that he never spoke to that gentle- 
man afterwards. Why should Mr. Burke be at 
such pains to deny, that he was the author, if 
he was not afraid, that it was possible to bring 
these compositions home to him ? In this respect 
he corresponds more than any other of the persons 
suspected with Junius, whose vigilance, and ex- 
ertions to conceal himself, and fear of detection 
were active, incessant, and extreme. Other sup- 
positions and remarks relative to this prosecution, 
all equally remote from the conclusion of our 
author, may be made here; but it is needless 
to prosecute the subject, farther. 

" If, however, (says our author) there should 
be readers so inflexible as still to believe, that 



244 



Mr. Burke was the real writer of Junius, and 
that his denial of the fact to Sir William Draper 
was only wrung from him under the influence 
of fear, it will be sufficient to satisfy even such 
readers, by shewing (to shew) that the system of 
the politics of one was in direct opposition to that 
of the other, upon a variety of the most important 
points. Burke was a decided partisan of Lord 
Rockingham, and continued so during the whole 
of that nobleman's life : Junius, on the contrary, 
zvas as decided a friend to Mr. George Grenville. 
Each was an antagonist to the other upon the 
great subject of the American Stamp Act. Ju- 
nius was a warm and powerful advocate for trien- 
11 i 1 parliaments; Burke an inveterate enemy to 
them." This passage, objectionable as it is on 
many accounts, contains, however, the only 
strong and plausible objections, that have ever 
been urged to shew, that the works of Junius 
were not written by Mr. Burke. And though 
I am fully disposed to admit their force, I hope 
it will not be deemed great obstinacy in me, if 
I should be still so inflexible as to think, that Mr. 
Bu.ke was, after all, the author of Junius. Most 
of my readers, I think, will be disposed to agree 
with me, that I have proved an affirmative, as 
well, at least, as my opponent has proved a ne- 
gative ; many of them, perhaps, that I have 



245 



proved it much better. It is necessary for me, 
however, to say something in reply to his pre- 
sent arguments. 

Is it then true, that the systems of politics 
maintained by both writers were in direct oppo- 
sition to one another on a variety of the most 
imparl ant points ? If this be so, then, I must 
say, that many of the best politicians and scholars 
in this country have been a long time in error. 
I will also admit, that I, who do not at all pre- 
tend to be either a good scholar, or a good poli- 
tician, have been also mistaken, though in very 
respectable company. Since ever 1 thought at 
all, or read any thing upon this subject, so far 
was I from suspecting, or being informed, that 
their systems of politics were different, that I 
understood, that the same doctrines, with one or 
two exceptions at the most, were maintained in 
the writings of Junius, and in the speeches and 
tracts of Mr. Burke. Junius, in the Public 
Advertiser, and Mr. Burke in the House of 
Commons, I always considered as the most able 
supporters of the Whig interest under Lord 
Rockingham ; and I suspect, that, in this, opi- 
nion, I have had the well-informed part of the 
nation on my side. But no, says our author, 
" Burke was the decided partizan of Lord Rock- 



246 

ingham, and Junius, on the contrary, was as 
decided a friend to Mr. George Grenville." Is 
it then true, that Junius was as decided an ad- 
vocate for the measures of Mr. Grenville, as 
Burke was for those of Lord Rockingham ? If 
this was the case, how did it happen, that Burke, 
during their appearance, was almost universally 
suspected, and even by those who had the best 
sources of information, to be the author of the 
Letters ? How did it happen, that Mr. Home, 
no bad judge one would suppose in such a case, 
accused Junius of being the partizan, not of 
Mr. Grenville, but of Lord Chatham ? How did 
it happen, that Junius was not attacked by his 
opponents, as the friend of Mr. Grenville, or as 
the advocate of his political measures? Or, if it 
be true, with what truth, or consistency could 
Junius, in the very face of his enemies, and with 
all his letters before them and the public, make 
a boast of his independence, and assert, as he did 
with truth, that he was the decided, or exclusive 
advocate of no party whatsoever ? " To write 
for profit, (said he) without taxing the press j 
to write for fame, and to be unknown ; to support 
the intrigues of faction, and to be disowned, as a 
dangerous auxiliary, by every party in the king- 
dom, are contradictions which the ministers must 
reconcile, before I forfeit my credit with the 



247 

public/' The court party, and the patriots, he 
says, would be equally unwilling to receive him. 
" But, in truth, sir, I have left no room for an 
accommodation with the piety of St. James's. 
My offences are not to be redeemed by recan- 
tation, or repentance. On one side, our zcarmest 
patriots would disclaim me, as a burthen to their 
honest ambition. On the other, the vilest pros- 
titution, if Junius could descend to it, would 
lose its natural merit and influence in the ca- 
binet, and treachery be no longer a recommen- 
dation to the Royal favour/' 

The present, I believe, is the first time, in 
which it has been gravely maintained, that Ju- 
nius (in spite of his own declaration to the con- 
trary, affirming, that he was of no party), was 
the advocate and partizan of Mr. Grenville. 
That he had a high respect for his abilities, cha- 
racter, and integrity, is clear from various parts 
of his writings ; but it is equally manifest, that 
Junius was in direct hostility to some of the 
measures of Mr. Grenville's administration. For 
instance, did Junius approve of the proceedings 
against Mr. Wilkes, which commenced while 
Mr. Grenville was minister, and by his advice? 
Did he approve of the seizure of his papers, or 
of his arrest by a general warrant? Or did Ju- 



248 



nius approve of another doctrine, not only main- 
tained, but carried into execution during that 
administration, that the crown, during a recess, 
had the power of suspending the operation of an 
act of the legislature ? It would be needless to 
multiply instances of this kind, to show, how 
much he differed in many things from Mr. Gren- 
ville. If, on the contrary, we compare the doc- 
trines of Junius with those of the Rockingham 
party, as detailed in the writings of their ablest 
organ, Mr. Burke, we shall find, that they differ 
positively on one point only, and, upon another, 
rather in appearance, than in reality. The first 
of these relates to the duration of parliaments 5 
the other to the extent of our rights and authority 
to legislate for the British colonies in America. 

But does it so clearly follow, because Burke 
was the partizan of Lord Rockingham, and 
Junius the friend of Mr. Grenville, that both 
writers must be different persons, and that Mr. 
Burke could not also be a friend to Mr. Gren- 
ville? That Mr. Burke, though they frequently 
differed in opinion, entertained great respect for 
that gentleman, and had a high opinion of his 
talents, as a statesman, is well known. If we 
had no other reason to satisfy us of this (it would 
be easy to state many proofs of it), it is suffi- 



249 

ciently clear from his character of Mr. Grenville, 
in his speech on American Taxation, which 
seems to have escaped our author's memory. 
In the account given there of Mr. Grenville, 
though he points to some of his defects, it is 
evident, that Mr. Burke was much more disposed 
to praise, than to blame him, and that panegyric, 
accordingly, predominates in the piece. — " Here 
(says he) began to dawn the first glimmerings of 
this new colony system. It appeared more dis- 
tinctly afterwards, when it was devolved upon a 
person, to whom, on other accounts, this country 
owes very great obligations. I do believe, that 
he had a very serious desire to benefit the public. 
But, with no small study of the detail, he did not 
seem to have his view, at least equally, carried to 
the total circuit of our affairs. He generally 
considered his objects in lights that were rather 
too detached." This want of more extensive 
views in Mr. Grenville he attributes to his being 
bred a lawyer; previous to which he remarks: — 
" Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be 
from defects not intrinsical : they must be rather 
sought in the particular habits of his life; which, 
though they do not alter the ground-work ot cha- 
racter, yet tinge it with their own hue." JunitM 
has no where manifested a more friendly di 
tion towards Mr. Grenville, or spoken more 

K K 



250 



highly of his talents and integrity, than Mr. 
Burke has done, in the following passage. " No 
man can believe, that, at this time of day, / mean 
to lean on the venerable memory of a great man 
whose loss we deplore in common. Our little party 
differences have been long ago composed; and I 
have acted more with him, and certainly with 
more pleasure zvith him, titan ever I acted against 
him*. Undoubtedly Mr. Grenville was a first- 
rate figure in this country. With a masculine un- 
derstanding, and a stout and resolute heart, he 
had an application undissipated and unwearied^. 
He took public business, not as a duty which he 
was to fulfil, but as a pleasure which he was to 
enjoy ; and he seemed to have no delight out of 

* Such are the words of the man, who, it is contended, could 
not be Junius, because Junius was a friend to Mr. Grenville! 

f Mr. Grenville in this particular so much resembled 
Burke, whose own attention to study and to business was un- 
dissipated and unwearied, that it would be natural enough 
for him, in the character of Junius, to express great respect 
for Mr. Grenville. Burke must be disposed to praise in ano- 
ther a qualification for which he highly valued himself. Of 
his own application and industry he speaks thus: " I now 
appear before you to make trial, whether my earnest endea- 
vours have been so wholly oppressed by the weakness of my 
abilities, as to be rendered insignificant in the eyes of a great 
trading city ; or whether you chuse to give weight to humble 
abilities, for the sake of the honest exertions, with which they 
are accompanied. This is my trial to-day. — My industry is 
not on trial. Of my industry I am sure, as far as my constitu- 
tion of mind aud body admitted." 



251 

this house, except in such things, as some way 
related to the business that was to be done within 
it. If he was ambitious, I will say this for him, 
his ambition was of a noble and generous strain. 
It was to raise himself, not by the low, pimping 
politics of a court, but to win his way to power, 
through the laborious gradations of public ser- 
vice ; 'and to secure to himself a well-earned rank 
in parliament, by a thorough knowledge of its 
constitution, and a perfect practice in all its 
business." 

If, therefore, we admit, that Junius was ever 
so friendly to Mr. Grenville, it will be difficult to 
prove, that he had a better opinion of him, in 
any respect, than Mr. Burke had ; so that, if we 
are to make an inference at all, upon the subject, 
from this source, it will be in favour of the 
opinion, that Junius was written by Mr. Burke. 

But, it may be replied, that Junius, who has 
never attacked Mr. Grenville in any way, has in 
one instance at least censured Lord Rockingham, 
when he says to the Duke of Bedford : — ■« Ap- 
parently united with Mr. Grenville, you waited 
until Lord Rockingham's feeble administration 
should dissolve in its own weakness." The cen- 
sure contained in this passage is not that of a 



952 



severe enemy, but rather of the mildest kind; for 
it could be no great reproach to Lord Rocking- 
ham to be told, that he had formed an admini- 
stration, which was too w T eak to oppose the 
power of the favourite. Such a mild censure as 
this might be expected naturally enough from 
Burke, if he was Junius, as it was calculated to 
make the rays of public suspicion take a new 
course, instead of converging fully upon himself. 
It is, besides, well known, that Mr. Burke, though, 
perhaps, he did not think so at first, was after- 
wards of opinion, that the base of the Rocking- 
ham administration was too narrow, and always 
wished to see a coalition between that party and 
those of Mr. Grenville and Lord Chatham. It 
is also worthy of remark, that Junius has not, 
under that favourite signature, bestowed so high 
a degree of praise upon Mr. Grenville, as he has 
upon the Marquis of Rockingham. He praises 
the shrewd inflexible judgment of the one, and 
the mild, but determined integrity of the other. 
" Lord Bute (says lie) found no resource of de- 
pendence, or security, in the proud, imposing 
superiority of Lord Chatham's abilities, the 
shrewd vrflexible judgment * of Mr. Grenville, nor 

* The shrewd and inflexible judgment, which Junius allows 
to Mr. Grenville, corresponds pretty closely with the mascu- 
line understanding and the stout and resolute heart, for which 
!;e is praised by Mr. Burke. 



253 



in the mild, but determined integrity of Lord 
Rockingham" Nor should it be forgotten, as it 
shows the respect and friendship of Junius for 
him, that he reproaches the Duke of Grafton in 
much severer terms for his desertion of Lord 
Rockingham, than he did for abandoning his first 
political patron Lord Chatham: — In his first let- 
ter he says, that the Duke's resignation " was the 
signed of Lord Rockingham's dismission." He 
accuses him only of deserting and abandoning 
Lord Chatham ; but says, that he betrayed Lord 
Rockingham : " Was not Lord Chatham the first 
who rai. ed him to the rank and post of a minister, 
and the first whom he abandoned!' Did he not 
join with Lord Rockingham and betray him? 1 ' 
And again — "Yet you deserted him (Lord Chat- 
ham) upon the first hopes that offered of an equal 
share of power with Lord Rockingham/' — And — 
" Still, however, he was your friend, and you are 
yet to explain to the world, why you consented 
to act without him, or why, after uniting with 
Lord Rockingham, you deserted and betrayed 
him?" It is not necessary to pursue this part of 
the subject farther. 

I believe, that the variety of most important 
points, upon which our author tells us the poli- 
tical systems of Burke and Junius were in direct 



254 



opposition to one another, will turn out to be a 
very limited variety indeed, if it be confined, as I 
apprehend it is, to two questions, namely, the 
American stamp act, and the duration of par- 
liament. But, admitting, that they do differ 
fundamentally on both these points, it is not 
impossible to assign some reasons, which might 
induce Mr. Burke to maintain opinions under 
the signature of Junius, different from those con- 
tained in his own writings. I do not say, that 
these reasons are, or can be satisfactory; they 
may not, however, be quite devoid of plausibility. 
Although, upon the whole, Junius is consistent 
enough with himself in all his letters under that 
signature, as well as that of Philo-Junius, yet, if 
we take the whole of his writings, as now given 
in the new edition, we shall find several incon- 
sistencies. Most of them, however, are not the 
effects of ignorance, or of a change of opinion, 
but of design, operating variously at various times, 
to attain one great object — his own personal se- 
curity and concealment. Why then may not 
Burke, when it was so well calculated to answer this 
end, maintain some opinions under the signature 
of Junius different from his own? If Junius 
agreed with Burke in every thing, there would 
be no difficulty in identifying both ; which, by 
making detection more easy, or increasing the 



255 

difficulties, with which his correspondence was 
attended, would tend to defeat the objects he 
had in view, and expose him, as he said himself, 
to the resentment of the worst and most powerful 
men in the kingdom. Besides the desire of con- 
cealment, there are other reasons also, which 
might be supposed to induce Mr. Burke to main- 
tain opinions under the name of Junius, which 
he has not held under his own. Might he not 
do so, in order to secure, or to increase the po- 
pularity of Junius; or because it afforded him 
greater facilities, and better, as well as more fre- 
quent, opportunities of attacking those persons, 
whose characters and measures he most disliked ? 
By declaring in favour of triennial parliaments, 
he would secure the former ; by advocating the 
stamp act, he was equally sure of the latter 
advantage. 

In all his writings Burke shows, that he was 
decidedly hostile to parliamentary reform, and to 
all speculative innovations on the constitution. 
He was also an enemy to the plans for shortening 
the duration of parliament. Knowing, as he 
must have done, that parliamentary reform, and 
not only triennial, but even annual parliaments 
had become, at that time, extremely popular 
throughout the nation, might he not, as Juuius, 



256 

declare himself in favour of triennial, in order to 
avoid the greater evil of annual parliaments, 
which he knew to be still more popular? Might he 
not do it to secure the popularity of Junius, and 
to prevent him from being charged with " an 
unusual want of political intrepidity?" Might he 
not do it to give a death blow to the calumnies 
circulated against him, by some of the most 
violent of the popular party, and by some of the 
members of the Bill of Rights Society, who said, 
that he was an advocate for rotten boroughs and 
long parliaments? Might he not do it, not merely 
to please the people, but to hinder himself from 
being identified with Mr. Burke, which would be 
unavoidable, were he once to pass for the par- 
tizan of the Rockingham party, who, as Mr. 
Home has told us, made a formal declaration 
against short parliaments ? Or, might he not also, 
knowing very well how popular all the opinions 
of Junius were, and how likely to guide the great 
body of the people, declare himself in favour of 
triennial parliaments, in the hope that the peo- 
ple, should they adopt his opinion, would abandon 
not only the pursuit of annual ones, which Ju- 
nius disliked, but perhaps also that of parlia- 
mentary reform and innovations on the constitu- 
tion, which Burke and Junius equally feared and 
reprobated? — At all events, whatever we may 



suppose could have been Mr. Burke's reasons for 
advocating triennial parliaments under the sig- 
nature of Junius, or however much we may be 
at a loss for any satisfactory conjecture on the 
subject, it is not a little remarkable, that Junius, 
after a formal declaration of his own opinion, 
speaks with great mildness, respect, and tender- 
ness of that of the Rockingham party, though so 
hostile to his own. " Though I have been long 
convinced (says he) that this (triennial parlia- 
ments) is the only possible resource we have left 
to preserve the substantial freedom of the con- 
stitution, / do not think, that zve have a right, to 
determine against the integrity of Lord Rocking- 
ham, or his friends. Other measures may un- 
doubtedly be supported in argument, as better 
adapted to the disorder, or more likely to be 
obtained:' (Vol. ii. 311-12.) 

With respect to the inconsistency of supposing 
Burke the author of what has been written by 
Junius, in favour of the stamp act, it may be 
remarked, that it afforded him a more plausible 
and broad ground for attacking various persons, 
who were constantly wavering between the 
opinion of George Grenville, for whom, as has 
been already shown, Burke had a high respect, 
and that of his best and dearest friend Lor* J 



258 



Rockingham. Such were the Graftons, the 
Conways, the Townshends, and some of the 
Bedford party. It also afforded him an excel- 
lent pretext for attacking Lord Chatham, to 
whom he had other reasons of hostility; and 
whose opinions, respecting the rights of the Bri- 
tish parliament to legislate for America, were as 
different from those of Junius, as they were from 
those of Mr. Burke. Besides, were Junius to 
advocate strongly the repeal of the stamp act, 
that leading measure of the Rockingham party, 
it would be sufficient to identify him with Mr. 
Burke, who was considered to be the author of 
that measure. Nor should it be forgotten, what- 
ever the opinion of Junius was as to the original 
policy of that act, that Mr. Burke was never 
more hostile, than he was, to the renewal, or re- 
agitation of that question, after the repeal. On 
this point the reader may consult, among others, 
the following parts of the new edition : (In his 
Private Letters to Mr. Wilkes, vol. i. pp. 293-4, 
and 329-30. Also p. 55, of the Public Letters, 
ibid. See farther vol. ii. pp. 147-8; vol. iii. pp. 
159-60, and 168.) The opinion of Junius, in 
the following passage, corresponds so fully, in all 
respects, with that of Mr. Burke on the subject of 
American taxation, that it is strange how it 
could be overlooked by those, who maintain that 



259 

Mr. Burke was not the author of Junius. It 
occurs in one of his last letters (Nov. 2, 1771,) and 
has this peculiar circumstance attending it, that 
it is the last, as well as the fullest and most expli- 
cit declaration Junius ever made on the subject. 
" Junius (says he) considers the right of taxing 
the colonies, by an act of the British legislature, 
as a speculative right merely, never to be exerted, 
nor ever to be renounced. To his judgment it 
appears plain — That the general reasonings, which 
zvere employed against that power, went directly 
to our zchole legislative right, and that one part of 
it could not be yielded to such arguments, without 
a virtual surrender of all the rest." 

But, if, after all, we should allow, that some 
difference of opinion, upon two points so im- 
portant, is a very strong argument against Mr. 
Burke's claims, we ought also to remember, that 
they agree upon two points of equal importance, 
and pretty intimately connected with both the 
preceding; for, if they differ upon the policy of 
the stamp act, they agree upon the right of the 
British parliament to legislate for America, in 
all cases whatsoever; if they differ as to the du- 
ration of parliaments, they are equally sanguine 
and zealous in condemning parliamentary reform, 
and all innovations on the constitution. 



Having now gone fairly through ail our au- 
thor's arguments against Mr. Burke, one only 
of his remarks to the same effect remains to be 
noticed. It is more silly and more childish than 
any thing he has hitherto urged in the way of 
argument. — " Why (says he) Mr. Burke was so 
early and generally suspected of having written 
them, it is not easy to say; but, that he was so 
suspected is obvious, not only from the opinion 
at first entertained by Sir William Draper, but 
from various public accusations, conveyed in dif- 
ferent newspapers and pamphlets of the day." 
There is not, in my opinion, anything in the 
world more easy to say, than why Mr. Burke was 
suspected. It was because of all the political 
characters of the day he was known to be the 
most learned and the most able writer ; and, 
because the opinions of Junius in the Public 
Advertiser almost uniformly corresponded with 
those maintained by Mr. Burke in the House of 
Commons. Not only Sir William Draper, but 
by far the greatest part of the opponents of 
Junius suspected Burke, or charged him directly 
with the composition of the letters. The Public 
Advertiser, in the month of October, 1771, con- 
tained a letter s signed Zeno, which was addressed 
to cc Junius, alias Edmund, the Jesuit of St. 
Qmers/' Another signed Pliny, a third, Querist^ 



261 



a fourth, Oxoniensis, a fifth, Sccevola, and several 
others also appeared, in which Mr. Burke was 
directly accused of being the author. One of 
the earliest collections of the letters of Junius 
was given in an anonymous pamphlet, entitled 
" The Genuine Letters of Junius, to which are 
prefixed anecdotes of the author." This anecdote 
writer takes it for granted, that Junius was Mr. 
Burke, " Thus (says our author) purposely, but 
fallaciously, identifying the two characters." 
That his opinion was not quite so erroneous will, 
I think, be hardly maintained by those, who have 
attentively examined the contents of this inquiry. 
Titus, another writer in the Public Advertiser, in 
a letter in defence of Lord Granby, where he 
talks of " the oratorical powers of a disappointed, 
dependant politician," insinuates that the letters 
were written by Burke, whom he considers as 
dependent on Lord Rockingham, and disappoint- 
ed by that nobleman's short possession of power. 
Another writer in the Public Advertiser, who 
signed himself an Advocate in tlie Cause of the 
People, also glances at Burke, when he says, that 
Junius is perhaps one of our discarded ministers, 
u or rather one of their secretaries, for ministers 
seldom write so well.'' Silurus, another of the 
opponents of Junius, suspected Burke: and so did 
Anti-Malagridu, a writer in defence of the mi- 



262 

nistry, who taxes Junius with want of shame, 
and tells him that " a blush seldom tinges those 
happy countenances, which have been bathed in 
the Liny." The last whom I shall mention is 
one of the three who bailed Eyre, after stealing 
the paper from Guildhall. He tells Junius, from 
what he can guess of him, that he is worse than 
either a Scotchman, or an Englishman " viz. 
an Irishman, a liar, and a Jesuit." 

This Inquiry having already extended to a 
much greater length than I at first expected, or 
intended, I find myself obliged to pass over alto- 
gether a variety of auxiliary topics and illustra- 
tions, all tending to confirm and establish my 
opinion. I mean to touch therefore but slightly 
even upon those points, to which I shall advert 
before I conclude. 

Junius being the most noted writer of his day, 
and Burke the best speaker, and, perhaps, the best 
informed statesman, in the House of Commons, it 
is remarkable, that they should have been almost 
altogether silent concerning each other if they were 
different persons. That general silence, I think, 
argues strongly for their identity : or if it does not, 
what could have prevented Junius from attacking 
Burke on septennial parliaments, or the stamp 



act, except this, that the letters were written by 
Burke himself? It is also remarkable, in the fine 
passage in one of his speeches, in which Burke 
noticed Junius, though he glances at his venom, 
that praise predominates. The whole passage 
seems to me a most finished and artful panegyric; 
and reminds me of nothing so strongly, as of the 
parental fondness of an author performing the 
office of reviewer to his own work. If he no- 
tices defects, it is only with a tender hand, and 
for fear, that unqualified praise may awaken sus- 
picion and lead to detection ; whilst its beauties 
are touched upon and pourtrayed with a bold 
and masterly hand. Compared with Junius, 
how low he makes the North Briton, which he 
calls " a spiritless though virulent performance ; 
a mere mixture of vinegar and water, at once 
sour and vapid/' Though he notices what he 
calls his rancour and venom, yet he says, that the 
letter to the king contains many bold truths, by 
which a wise prince might profit. The passage 
altogether is, in my opinion, a most able and ju- 
dicious panegyric. But the reader shall judge 
for himself. " Where then (says Mr. Burke), 
shall we look for the origin of this relaxation of 
the laws and all government? How comes this 
Junius to have broken through the cobwebs <>l 
the law, and to range uncontrolled, unpunished] 



264 



through the land? The myrmidons of the court 
have been long, and are still, pursuing him in 
vain. They will not spend their time upon me, 
or you, or you. No: they disdain such vermin, 
when the mighty boar of the forest, that has 
broken through all their toils, is before them. 
But what will all their efforts avail? No sooner 
has he wounded one, than he lays down another 
dead at his feet. For my part, when I saw his 
attack upon the King, I own my blood ran cold. 
I thought he had ventured too far, and that there 
was an end to his triumphs : not that he had not 
asserted many truths. Yes, sir, there are in that 
composition many bold truths, by which a wise 
prince might profit. It was the rancour and 
venom, with which I was struck. In these re- 
spects the North Briton is as much inferior to 
him, as in strength, wit, and judgment. But, 
while I expected in this daring flight his final 
ruin and fall, behold him rising still higher, and 
coming souse upon both houses of parliament. 
Yes, he did make you his quarry, and you still 
bleed from the wounds of his talons. You 
crouched, and still crouch beneath his rage. Nor 
has he dreaded the terrors of your brow, sir; he 
has attacked even you — he has— and, I believe, 
you have no reason to triumph in the encounter. 
In short, after carrying away our royal eagle in 



26; 



his pounces, and dashing him against a rock, he 
has laid you prostrate. King, lords, and com- 
mons, are but the sport of his fury. Were he a 
member of this house, what might not be ex- 
pected from his knowledge, his firmness, and his 
integrity? He would be easily known by his con- 
tempt of all danger, by his penetration, by his 
vigour. Nothing would escape his vigilance 
and activity. Bad ministers could conceal nothing 
from his sagacity ; nor could promises or threats, 
induce him to conceal anything from the pub- 
lic*." 

So extensive were the learning and reading of 
Mr. Burke, that he was acquainted almost with 
every department of human knowledge. " He 
even applied himself (says Bisset) to subjects, 
which do not very often occupy men of taste and 
science. He became intimately conversant with 
the writings of the fathers, and with the subtle- 
ties of the school divines; with the principles and 
details of orthodoxy ; the rise, progress, and ef- 
fects of the manifold heresies ; and with the va- 
rious means either of reason, or of force, employed 
for their disproof or extirpation/' Those, who 

* Never was there a member of the House of Commons, to 
whom these concluding observations could be applied with 
more justice, than to Mr. Burke himself. 
M M 



266 

are versed in the writings of Junius, must re- 
member some of his allusions to these sources of 
knowledge. Alluding to the practice in the 
church of Rome of not commonly giving the cup 
to the laity, he says of Lord Weymouth, who 
was fond of the bottle — " Yet he must have 
bread, my Lord ; or rather he must have wine. 
If you deny him the cup, there will be no keep- 
ing him within the pale of the ministry." — "The 
Bible and Junius, he remarks in another place, 
will be read, when the commentaries of the Je- 
suits are forgotten/' These are the words in 
which he concludes his answer to Mr. Home, 
after remarking immediately before, that the 
priesthood were accused of misinterpreting the 
scriptures; but that Mr. Home had improved 
upon his profession, as he altered the text and 
created a refutable doctrine of his own. There 
are two passages of a similar tendency in the 
miscellaneous letters. " They figure away, says 
he, as men of business in the Gazette, }'et, by a 
secret stipulation, are relieved from the trouble 
of attendance. If Malagrida had any interest 
with the present ministry, I should have no doubt, 
that this was one of his subtle contrivances. An 
ostensible engagement, with a mental reserva- 
tion, is the first principle of the morale relachee 
professed and inculcated by the society of Jesus.'' 



2*57 

And again, replying to some advocate of the 
Duke of Grafton, who said, that he was not 
bound to keep a promise, which he had made, 
and that in this he could be supported by the 
soundest casuists — he remarks — " I am not 
deeply read in authors of that professed title, but 
I remember seeing Bassambaum, Suarez, Molina, 
and a score of other Jesuitical books, burnt at 
Paris, for their sound Casuistry, by the hands of 
the common hangman. I do not know, that 
they have yet found their way to England, unless 
perchance it be to the library of his Grace of 
Grafton, where they probabty stand with the 
chapter of promises dog-eared down for the pe- 
rusal of scrupulous statesmen." The reader will 
readily find passages of a similar kind, and drawn 
from the same sources, in all parts of the writings 
of Mr. Burke. 

Junius, from being at first an enemy to Mr. 
Wilkes, on account of his profligacy and some 
parts of his public conduct, afterwards espoused 
his cause, when he found, that the laws and first 
principles of the constitution had been violated 
in his person. Burke, who was a very temperate, 
abstemious, and moral man, could not approve 
of the private character of Wilkes, any more than 



of some parts of his public conduct, which had 
too great a tendency to excite and inflame the 
licentiousness of the people, to which Burke was 
always an enemy. His happy application of a 
line in Horace, (by adding one letter) to the con- 
duct of the mob when chairing Wilkes, should 
never be forgotten. " Fertur (said he) humeris 
lege solutis." Had Burke no other reason to dis- 
like Wilkes, he might think himself justified in 
doing so from the very unreasonable request, or 
rather demand, which he asked Burke to make 
for him from Lord Rockingham, when he came 
into office. This was nothing less than a general 
pardon, five thousand pounds in cash, and a pen- 
sion on the Irish establishment. This message 
Burke refused to carry ; nor could Wilkes pre- 
vail upon any body else to make so extravagant 
an application. To prevent him, however, from 
being troublesome, the Rockingham party grant- 
ed him a pension out of their respective salaries, 
and prevailed on him to return to the continent. 
Mr. Burke, in his Thoughts on the Cause of the 
Present Discontents, speaks of the immoral cha- 
racter of Wilkes just as Junius does. He was 
also the great supporter of his cause in the House 
of Commons; and as anxious, as Junius ever 
was, for erasing from the journals the decision of 



«t>9 



the house on the Middlesex election; which af- 
terwards took place, when the Rockingham party 
came a second time into office. 

Every reader of Junius remembers, with what 
an unrelenting severity he has attacked the Scotch 
in all parts of his writings. It is needless to go 
into any detail of his motives here; but it cannot 
be irrelevant to show, that Mr. Burke also spoke 
of them sometimes with no greater respect. This 
will be evident from a passage in a letter from 
him to Thomas Burgh, Esq. in 1780. "To this 
influence, (the overbearing influence of the crown) 
the principle of action, the principle of policy, 
and the principle of union of the present minority 
are opposed. These principles of the opposition 
are the only thing, which preserves a single 
symptom of life in the nation. That opposition 
is composed of the far greater part of the inde- 
pendent property and independent rank of the 
kingdom ; of whatever is most untainted in cha- 
racter, and of whatever ability remains unextin- 
guished in the people, and of all which tends to 
draw the attention of foreign countries upon this. 
It is now in its final and conclusive struggle. It 
has to struggle against a force, to which, I am 
afraid, it is not equal. The whoi.k kingdom of 
Scotland ranges with the venal, the unprincipled, 



270 



and the wrong-principled of iliis ; and., if the king- 
dom of Ireland thinks proper to pass into the 
same camp, we shall certainly be obliged to quit 
the field." Such a passage as this requires no 
commentary. 

Junius entertained as little respect, if possible, 
for the profession of the law, as he did for the 
Scotch nation ; and although Mr. Burke does not 
condemn lawyers in the gross, like Junius, nor 
could he, indeed, without incurring much odium, 
or with any degree of decorum, considering, that 
he had many intimate friends of that profession; 
yet it is clear, from several parts of his works, 
that he had but little respect for lawyers in gene- 
ral. The study of the law, he thinks, does not 
at all tend to enlarge and liberalise the mind; 
and the reader will remember, that the defects in 
Mr. Grenville's mental character, and his want 
of extensive views, are ascribed by Mr. Burke to 
his being bred in that profession. In his speech 
on conciliation with America, he says — "That 
when great honours and great emoluments do 
not win over this knowledge (that of lawyers) to 
the service of the state, it is a formidable adver- 
sary to government. If the spirit be not tamed 
and broken, by these happy methods, is stub- 
born and litigious." Nor does he speak of lawyers 



271 

with greater respect in other parts of the same 
speech. (See Works, vol. iii. pp. 75 and 177.) 
He is of opinion, that the members of the House 
of Commons, by not being lawyers by profession, 
are thereby better fitted to superintend the doc- 
trines and the proceedings of the law courts. " I 
have always understood, that a superintendence 
over the doctrines, as well as the proceedings, of 
the courts of justice, was a principal object of 
the constitution of this House; that you were to 
watch at once over the lawyer and the law ; that 
there should be an orthodox faith as well as good 
works : and I have always looked with a degree 
of reverence and admiration on this mode of 
superintendence. For, being totally disengaged 
from the detail of juridical practice, zee come 
something, perhaps, the better qualified, and cer- 
tainly much the better disposed, to assert the ge- 
nuine principle of the laws ; in which we can, as 
a body, have no other than an enlarged and a pub- 
lic interest. We have no common cause of a pro- 
fessional attachment , or professional emulations to 
bias our minds; we have no foregone opinions, 
which, from obstinacy and false point of honour, 
roe think ourselves, at all events, obliged to support. 
So that, zvith our minds perfectly disengaged from 
the exercise, we may superintend the execution of 
the national justice ; which, from this circumstance, 



is better secured to the people, than it can be in 
any other country under heaven.'' (Works, vol. x. 
p. 109.) 

Those who remember the bitter, the violent 
and coarse invectives of Junius, may be able to 
trace the same spirit in Mr. Burke's attack upon 
the Duke of Bedford, and in his violent and in- 
cessant philippics against the authors of the 
French Revolution. It is unnecessary to illus- 
trate this by examples. 

Though Junius was evidently a friend to Ire- 
land, and though the wretched mode, in which 
that country was governed, afforded him exhaust- 
less sources of attack against the ministry, it is 
not a little remarkable, that he never enters upon 
the affairs of that kingdom at large, but only 
touches upon them incidentally. When, how- 
ever, he touches upon them it is clear, that he 
does so with all the warmth and sincerity of a 
sanguine friend. It strikes me, as in the highest 
degree probable, that the motive of Junius for 
abstaining so generally from the affairs of Ireland, 
was an apprehension, if he entered upon them 
often and fully, that this circumstance would go 
far towards a discovery, by strongly identifying 
him with Mr. Burke. 



273 

The new Editor infers from the following pas* 
sage in one of the private letters of Junius to 
Mr. Woodfall, that he could not be much less 
than fifty years of age. " After long experience 
of the icorld," says he, " I affirm before God, I 
never knew a rogue, who was not unhappy. " 
There is another passage of a similar tendency in 
one of his letters to Mr. Wilkes, written about 
the same time, (towards the end of the year 1771) 
where he says- — " Many thanks for your obliging 
offer ; but, alas ! my age and figure would do 
but little credit to my partner." Junius, to pre- 
vent suspicion, may, as in this last passage) pre- 
tend, that he was older than he really was; but 
it does not follow from the former, that he could 
not be much less than fifty. Mr. Burke, at that 
time, was just forty-one years old ; and when we 
consider his penetration, sagacity, talent for ob- 
servation, and the great knowledge of the world, 
which he is well known to have possessed at that 
time, after having mixed for about twenty years 
in London with all classes of people, we shall not 
be at all surprised to find him mentioning his 
long experience of the world at an age, when we 
must be satisfied he knew more of it, than most 
men do at the end of the longest life. 

There is another respect in which Burke's situa- 



274 



tion corresponds exactly to that of Junius. Who- 
ever Junius was, it is clear, that he must have 
resided almost constantly in London, or in its 
vicinity, during the time of his correspondence 
with Mr. Woodfall. This will be evident from 
an examination of the dates of his letters. His 
last Junius appeared on the 21st of Jan: 1772; 
and the last of all his letters in the Public Adver- 
tiser, under the signature of Nemesis, was on the 
12th of May of the same year. Between the 
21st of Jan. and the 12th of May, 1772, he wrote 
eleven private letters to Mr. Woodfall. After 
that date it is not known, that he ever wrote to 
him more than once, and that was on the 19th 
of January, 1773, after a silence of more than 
eight months. If any letters passed between them 
afterwards, all traces of the correspondence are 
lost. His letters, signed Junius, took up exactly 
a period of three years; all his public letters, 
under this and various other signatures, some- 
what more than five. Now what serves in a par- 
ticular manner to identify Burke with Junius is, 
that during the time the latter wrote, the former 
resided (with the exception of a few short visits 
into the country) constantly in London, or in its 
vicinity. And it is not a little remarkable, 
though hitherto unnoticed, that Burke went over 
to France in the summer of 1772, immediately 



275 

after Junius ceased to write in the Public Adver- 
tiser. It was after his return, that he took occa- 
sion, in the House of Commons, in the beginning 
of 1773, when a bill for the relief of Protestant 
Dissenters was under discussion, to point out, to 
the attention and vigilant jealousy of parliament, 
those plans for the subversion of all order, reli- 
gion, and government, which, even at that time, 
he perceived to be rapidly hastening towards 
maturity in France. 

From some of the private letters of Junius 
(see No. 29) it appears, that so great was his 
anxiety at one time to have both houses of par- 
liament open to the public, that he sent anony- 
mous paragraphs to the Public Advertiser for 
that purpose, on two successive days, previous to 
the discussion on the business of Falkland Island. 
Mr. Burke, on a subsequent occasion, shows a 
similar anxiety, in a letter to the Marquis of 
Rockingham in 1777- "There is one thing in 
particular," says he, " I wish to recommend to 
your Lordship's consideration; that is, the open- 
ing of the doors of the House of Commons. 
Without this, I am clearly convinced it will be in 
the power of ministry to make our opposition 
appear without doors just in what light they 



276 

please. To obtain a galley is the easiest thing 
in the world, if we are satisfied to cultivate the 
esteem of our adversaries, by the resolution and 
energy, with which we act against them : but, if 
their satisfaction and good humour be any part 
of our object, the attempt, I admit, is idle." 
(Works, vol. ix. p. 170.) These coincidences, 
trifling as they may appear to some, will, how- 
ever, as ilu v Certainty ought, have much weight 
with others. It is lor this reason that I am in- 
duced to mention both the following. 

Every body, who has read the letters, remem- 
bers with what extraordinary severity Junius has 
sometimes attacked the King. Burke too could 
sometimes talk with very little respect of majesty, 
and make it a mere jest. Talking one day to 
Dr. Beattie, who, it seems, was running into 
much panegyric on the subject, Burke asked him 
what was majesty, if it were stripped of its ex- 
teriors, (the first and last letters of the word) but 
a jest ? 

Burke, though a temperate man, was very 
sociable, and liked to sit over a bottle of wine 
with his friends. He preferred light wines, par- 
ticularly claret, and seldom exceeded a bottle. 



277 

One evening at the club, when Johnson re- 
marked, " If you make me Dictator you shall 
have no more wine." — " Then, sir," replied 
Burke, " you shall not have me for your Master 
of the Horse/' Junius, too, was no enemy either 
to wine, or to sociability, as will appear from the 
following passage in one of his letters to Mr. 
Wilkes, which I think is equally honourable to 
his heart and his understanding : " The domestic 
society you speak of (that of Miss Wilkes) is 
much to be envied. I fancy I should like it still 
better than you do*. I too am no enemy to 
good fellowship, and have often cursed that cant- 
ing parson (Mr. Home) for wishing to deny you 
your claret. It is for him, and men like him, to 
beware of intoxication. Though I do not place 
the little pleasures of life in competition with the 
glorious business of instructing and directing the 
people, yet I see no reason, why a wise man 
may not unite the public virtues of Cato, with 
the indulgence of Epicurus." 

If any person, well acquainted with the writ- 
ings of Junius, will take the trouble of compar- 
ing them with some of the fragments of speeches 

* No man was more domestic-, or more happy in his own 
family, than Mr. Burke. 



278 

lately published in the tenth volume of Mr. 
Burke's works, he will, I am persuaded, be satis- 
fied, that both were the productions of the same 
author. I decline examples, in order to avoid 
prolixity. 

Bisset, in the parallel, which he has drawn of 
the eloquence of Cicero and of Burke, justly 
remarks, that " in the imagery, as well as in the 
arguments, of Cicero, an attentive reader will 
find more of rhetorical art, than in Burke's. 
Cicero deals more in antithesis, climax, interro- 
gation, the productions of study; Burke, in me- 
taphor, personification, apostrophe, the effusions 
of genius." The latter, too, are the species of 
figures most common in Junius; so that even in 
this respect he coincides with Mr. Burke; the 
ornaments used by both being rather the effu- 
sions of genius, than the laboured productions of 
rhetorical art. Nor is it merely in drawing their 
imagery from the same sources, that Burke and 
Junius coincide. They also agree in another 
particular; for both are frequently hurried by 
the force and rapidity of genius into a mixture of 
plain and figurative language, and a confusion 
of metaphors, which, it has been remarked, a 
-slower mind, with an ordinary recollection of 



*79 

common-place precepts, would have avoided. 
" With what countenance can you (says Junius 
to the Duke of Grafton) take your seat at the 
Treasury Board, or in Council, when you feel, 
that every circulating whisper is at your ex- 
pense, and stabs you to the heart?" "Thus/' 
says Burke, " are blown away the insect race of 
courtly falsehoods. Thus perish the miserable 
inventions of the wretched runners of a wretched 
cause, which they have fly-blown into every weak 
and rotten part of the country, in vain hope, that, 
when their maggots had taken wing, their im- 
portunate buzzing might sound something like 
the public voice." 

It was my intention in this part of my Inquiry 
to prove, by a variety of expressions taken from 
the letters, that Junius must have been an Irish- 
man ; and then to show, by a large selection of 
expressions, some of them identical, others ana- 
logous and similar, taken from the writings of 
both, that the letters of Junius must have been 
written by Mr. Burke. To avoid prolixity I 
shall illustrate the former point by one, and the 
latter only by a few examples. Junius, speaking 
to Lord North of Colonel Luttrell, says — " I 
protest, my Lord, there is in this young man's 



280 

conduct a strain of prostitution, which, for its 
singularity, I cannot but admire. He has dis- 
covered a new line in the human character; he 
has degraded even the name of Luttrell, and gra- 
tified his father's most sanguine expectations." 
In the words — " he has degraded even the name 
of Luttrell" — there is an allusion, which no Eng- 
lishman understands, and a severity, therefore, 
which he cannot perceive. The name of Luttrell, 
in several parts of Ireland, is synonymous with 
the words traitor, or betrayer, owing to a tradi- 
tion, which prevails there among the people, that 
it was on account of the treachery of an officer 
of the name of Luttrell, and of the same family, 
that King James lost the battle of the Boyne. 
Without such an explanation as this, the words 
of Junius are unintelligible: and as it was not 
possible for him to become acquainted with this 
traditional fact, or with the proverbial use of the 
word Luttrell in some parts of Ireland to signify 
a traitor, from any written or printed publica- 
tion, it is clear, that he must have been an Irish- 
man. 

If the reader will turn back to pages 84, 5, of 
this Inquiry, he will find one example of the use 
of the same mode of expression both by Burke 



281 



and Junius; and although there is no species of 
proof, of which it would be easier for me to give 
numerous examples, a few must suffice for the 
present. "This cur, (says Junius, vol. ii. p. 490) 
plays fast and loose, just as I bid him/' " They 
put statesmen and magistrates," says Burke, 
" into an habit of playing fast and loose with the 
laws." (Vol. x. p. '27. ) To open himself upon a 
topic, or to lay it open, was a favourite expression 
with Mr. Burke. " It is worth while to lay this 
affair a little more open." (Junius, vol. iii. p. 14.) 
M You had all that, matter fully opened at your 
bar." (Burke, vol. iii. p. 45.) "Which it will not 
be amiss to lay open somewhat more largely." 
(lb. p. 49-) " Permit me to open myself a little 
on this subject/' (lb. p. 145.) In his speech on 
American taxation, he says — " I shall, therefore, 
open myself fully on that important and delicate 
subject/' " I see no medium between such a 
temporary accommodation and either the mise- 
ries of civil bloodshed, or the established tran- 
quillity of servitude." (Junius, vol. iii. p. 274.) 
Burke has " the dismal, cold, dead uniformity of 
servitude.'' (Vol. iii. p. 70.) Similar also is the 
phrase to " sink into the dead repose of despotism,' ' 
at the end of his Thoughts on the Cause of the 
Present Discontents. " I feel warmly on this sub- 
o o 



28< 



jeet" says Burke, " and J express myself as 1 
feelf (Vol. iii. 19<5.) " This is the language of 
my heartf says Junius, " it comes home to us 
all.'''' " Whether those measures are supported 
openly by the power of government, or masked 
under the forms of a court of justice!' (Junius, 
vol. i. p. 60.) " The act," .says Mr. Burke, " pre- 
pares a sort of masked proceeding, not honourable 
to the justice of the kingdom, and by no means 
necessary for its safety." (Vol. iii. p. 138.) Al- 
luding to a project of the ministry, that the 
crown should make no more grants of land in 
America, Burke talks of "this avarice of desola- 
tion, and this hoarding of a royal wilderness." 
(Vol. iii. p. CrJ.) Junius, speaking of the conduct 
of the ministry relative to the Nullum Tempus Act, 
says : " It seems that they had hoarded up those 
unmeaning powers of the crown" &c. (Vol. iii. 
p. 16.) Burke shows his powers of invention fre- 
quently, by the use of new combinations of lan- 
guage ; so does Junius : " My little share in this 
great deliberation oppressed me." (Burke, vol. iii. 
p. 26.) " I now appear before you to make trial, 
whether my earnest endeavours have been so 
wholly oppressed by the weakness of my abilities, 
as to be rendered insignificant in the eyes of a 
great trading city." (lb. p. 8.) Speaking of the 



283 



desire of some of those, who formed Mr. Pitt's 
coalition administration, in 1766, to get rid of 
him, he says: "The other party *** seemed 
rather pleased to get rid of so oppressive a sup- 
port." The following examples from Junius are 
of a similar nature : " Our warmest patriots would 
declaim me as a burthen to their honest, ambition." 
(Vol. ii. 206.) "The house list of directors was 
cursed with the concurrence of government ; and 
even the miserable Dingley could not escape the 
misfortune of your Grace's protection" (Vol. i. 
p. i 17.) " Far from regretting your retreat, they 
a -sure us \ery gravely, that it increases the strength 
of the ministry. According to this way of rea- 
soning, they will probably grow stronger and 
more flourishing, every hour they exist; for, I 
think, there is hardly a day passes, in which some 
one, or other, of his Majesty's servants does not 
leave them to improve by the loss of his assistance!' 
(Vol. ii. p. 104.) Mr. Burke remarks in the same 
spirit — " On the principle of this argument, the 
more mischiefs we suffer from any administration, 
the more our trust in it, is to be confirmed. '' — Be 
assured, — rest assured, — assuredly, — most assur- 
edly, — depend upon it, — / doubt much, — in my 
poor opinion, — my poor sentiments, — my poor un- 
derstanding, — / am a plain man, &c. &c. are 



284 



forms of expression, which are frequently used 
both by Burke and Junius. The verb to propose 
is uniformly and improperly used by both instead 
of to purpose: " The use proposed to be made of 
it," says Junius, " will be the subject of my next 
paper." He should have said purposed, that, is 
intended. " I do not (says Buike) open them here, 
proposing only to give the reader some taste of 
the difficulties, that attend all capital changes in 
the constitution." " For the purpose of counter- 
acting the benefits proposed by the repeal of one 
penal law." And again : " If the wealth of the 
nation be the cause of its turbulence, I imagine 
it is not proposed to introduce poverty as a con- 
stable to keep the peace." As neither of them 
ever departs from this usage, further examples 
are unnecessary. Junius uses the words, " what- 
ever is substantial and beneficial in a trial by 
jury:" "By this act, (says Burke) so construed 
and so applied, almost all that is substantial and 
beneficial in a trial by jury is taken away from 
the subject in the colonies/' (Vol. iii. p. 139) It 
is needless to prosecute this topic farther. 

The motto of Junius, " Stat nominis umbra," 
has been frequently the subject of remark among 
all those, who have been anxious for the discovery 



Q85 

of this mysterious writer; and trifling as some 
may think any argument drawn from such a 
source, it is certain, that even this tends to iden- 
tify Junius with Mr. Barke. It has been often 
doubted, whether this motto was a quotation, on he 
composition of Junius himself. And I know, that 
the question has been put to many, among others, 
to two of the first classical scholars this country 
has produced, without their being able to deter- 
mine, whether it was original, or a quotation. 
They did not recollect having ever seen the pas- 
sage any where but in Junius; and in justice to 
them it is but fair to say, though it occurs in the 
first book of Lucan's Pharsalia, that it has but 
very seldom indeed been the subject of quotation. 
Lucan, though he did not admire the whole of 
his poem, was a favourite with Mr. Burke; and 
I think it serves very strongly to identify him 
with Junius, that, with the exception of Junius, 
Mr. Burke is perhaps the only English writer, by 
whom this passage has been quoted in the eigh- 
teenth century. It occurs in a speech, which he 
made on the 11th of May, 1792, occasioned by 
a petition presented by the Unitarians, and is 
quoted at full length. (Works, vol. x. p. 56.) 



286 

"Nee coierc pares: alter vergentibus annis 
In senium, longoque togae tranqaillior usu, 
Dedidioit jam pace clucem : — 
Nee reparare novas vires, niultumque priori 
Credere fortuuae. Stat mugni nominis umbra*." 

We have already seen, that Burke was the 
author of Junius, in the opinion of most of this 
writer's opponents, as well as in those of Sir 
William Draper and Doetor Johnson. Mr. Wil- 
liam Gerard Hamilton, we know, was at one time 
much suspected for being Junius, on account of 
a conversation between him and the Duke of 
Richmond : but we are informed by Mr. Malone, 
in his Preface to Mr. Hamilton's Parliamentary 
Logic , that Mr. Hamilton solemnly declared, near 
the time of his death, that he was not Junius. 
On the question, " who was tJie author ," Mr. 
Maloue tells us, that Mr. Hamilton " was as free 
to talk as any other person, and often did express 
his opinion concerning it to the writer of this 
short memoir " t( an opinion (adds Mr. Ma- 
lone) nearly coinciding with that of those per- 
sons, who appear to have had the best means of 
information on the subject." I am happy to 
have it in my power to declare, that, in Mr. 
Hamilton's opinion, Burke was the author of Ju- 

* Lucan, 1. 129 to 135. 



287 

nius*. This, too, I may add, was also the 
opinion of Mr. Malone. ^ 

Many suspected, that the late Mr. Home 
Tooke knew who was the author of Junius. He 
has been often known to declare, that he knew 
him, and occasionally talked in an ambiguous 
way, as if he wished his hearers to think, that he 
was the author himself. This is, accordingly, 
the opinion, which some of them entertain ; but 
it is so improbable and absurd, as to merit no 
attention. I should be sorry to find so very 
learned a man, as Mr. Tooke, play so very un- 
worthy a part ; but it would appear, from the 
account of his biographer, Mr, Stephens, that he 
kept up this farce to the last. Mr. Stephens 
says, that Mr. Tooke often told him he knew who 
Junius was : he even informs us, that, a short 
time before his death, he told another friend, that 
Junius was still alive. 

I have so great a respect for the undoubted 
talents and learning of Mr. Tooke, that I should 
be sorry to record any thing disgraceful to his 

* Hamilton having one day declared his opinion, that 
Burke was Junius, it was remarked, that Burke's style was 
Quite different. Mr. Hamilton replied — '• Burke's style, sir, 
is any style." 



•■288 



memory, did not truth and impartiality require 
it. It gives me, tftfrefore, greater pleasure to 
mention the following anecdote, which I have 
heard on this subject, as much more creditable 
to his sagacity and abilities. One of Mr. Tooke' s 
acquaintances, a few years ago, took it into his 
head, that the letters of Junius were written by 
Gibbon, the historian. After meditating upon 
the matter for a few weeks, and becoming com- 
pletely enamoured of his opinion, he called upon 
Home Tooke to hear what he would say on the 
subject. Mr. Tooke, I have been informed, 
after laughing heartily at the new discovery, told 
him, that the Letters of Junius were written by 
nobody, if they were not written by Mr. Burke. 

Blackstone, who was certainly one of the best 
informed men, as well as one of the best literary 
judges of his time, thought, that Burke was the 
author. This may be inferred even, were it not 
otherwise known, from a postscript of his in reply 
to Junius, where, after stating — "That the person 
was incapable of being elected, that his election 
was, therefore, null and void, and that his com- 
petitor ought to have been returned/' he adds : 
( No, says a great orator. 1 Though he was 
answering Junius he hinted, by this expression, 
that he suspected him to be Mr. Burke, who 



289 



was the great orator here alluded to. Black- 
stone also upon another occasion alluded even 
more strongly to Mr. Burke; for in replying to 
Junius, he directly adverts to some words used 
by Burke in the House of Commons. Burke, 
alluding to the Middlesex election, asks : — "By 
what rule then does the majority of this House 
square its conduct, when it acts in direct oppo- 
sition to the majority of the people ? By that 
rule of arithmetic, which, by its almighty fiat, over- 
turned the laws of nature, decreed 296 to be 
greater than 1146, and gave us Colonel Luttrell 
for John Wilkes, a cuckoo in a magpie's nest 
to suck its eggs/' The passage, in which Black- 
stone adverts to this, in one of his replies to 
Junius, is the following : " Nor is this rule, 
founded as it is in sound sense and public neces- 
sity, to be put out of countenance by a little 
ingenious sophistry, playing upon the ambiguity 
of certain undefined terms, taunting us with the 
reproach of elections by a minority, of inverting 
the rules of arithmetic, and the like." Expres- 
sions which clearly show that, in his opinion, 
Junius was the same person with Mr. Burke. 

Mr. Burke's surviving friends and relatives, 
thinking him, no doubt, from the great merits 



l 290 

of his acknowledged works, sufficiently rich in lite- 
rary reputation, have been, on that account, less 
anxious to claim for him the additional honour 
of being the author of Junius: on the contrary, 
they have shewn a far greater anxiety, and have 
exerted themselves with considerable industry, 
to discredit whatever tended to countenance such 
an opinion. Had they remained apparently 
indifferent or less active than they have been, 
and allowed every body to form his opinion on 
the subject from whatever documents were to be 
procured, the secret, which they seem so anxious 
to conceal, would be certainly better kept; but, 
by their overdone anxiety for concealment, they 
have produced an effect contrary to what they 
intended j for, instead of putting suspicion to 
rest, they have given it new life, and vigour, and 
motion. On account of my respect for the 
parties, I am unwilling to publish all, that has 
been communicated to me on the subject : but 
truth and impartiality make it necessary for me to 
take some notice of what passed at a meeting held 
at Mr. Woodfall's, in the beginning of last year, 
for the purpose of examining the manuscript 
papers of Junius. Besides other gentlemen, there 
were also present at this meeting two of Mr. 
Burke's executors, and the late Mr. Malone. 



291 



Two of .these gentlemen were so short-sighted 
as to be unable to distinguish one hand writing 
from another; and a third, it seems, was unwil- 
ling ; for after barely glancing at one of the 
manuscripts, he said, it was not the hand of any 
of the Burke family. This gentleman, I am 
told, appeared as if he came prepared, at all 
hazards, to deny that Burke was Junius. He 
manifested evident uneasiness on the subject, 
and remarked to one of the gentlemen present — 
" Besides, sir, were it true, that he was the 
writer a it would be cowardly now to publish what 
dared not be acknowledged in the author's life- 
time j it would be base." Though one of the 
party promised to bring specimens of the hand 
writing of all the members of Mr. Burke's 
family to the meeting, for the purpose of com- 
paring them with the manuscripts of Junius — 
none were produced. 

Mr. Burke's executors admitted, that the let- 
ters in the Public Advertiser, with the private 
signature C, were presumptions, that he was the 
author, but not proofs. I am surprised, that even 
so much could be admitted by persons, who 
were of opinion, that it would be base and 
cowardly to reveal what had not been revealed 
by the author himself. After such a declaration. 



292 



nobody, surely, can be foolish enough to expect, 
whatever knowledge, or documents they may 
possess, that these gentlemen will ever condes- 
cend to throw any new light upon this interest- 
ing and long agitated subject. 

Before I conclude, I may take the liberty of 
mentioning one fact more relative to this sub- 
ject. During the time that the letters appeared 
in the Public Advertiser, Mr. Burke's son was a 
scholar at Westminster school -, and it is remem- 
bered by some of those, who were at Westminster 
school, at the same time, that his private tutor 
was sometimes able to tell, before hand, when a 
Junius was to appear. I think 1 may add, that 
this fact is still in the recollection of Dr. Vincent, 
the very learned and respectable Dean of West- 
minster. 

My readers have now before them all the 
reasons, which it is my intention to submit to 
them at present, in support of my opinion con- 
cerning the author of Junius. Though they 
may not appear convincing to all, I flatter my- 
self that most of my readers will allow them to 
be strong, clear, and satisfactory. This, at least, 
I think, I have a right to expect from candid 
scholars, who must be well aware, from the 



29S 

author's studious desire of concealment, that a 
question of this kind does not admit of being 
as rigorously demonstrated, as a question in 
mathematics. Not being in possession of any 
private documents, which, if there are any in 
existence, are deposited in the hands of friends, 
who are as anxious to keep them secret, as the 
author was himself, I have been obliged to draw 
most of my arguments, not from private sources, 
but from documents already before the public. 
As every thing was not to be expected from 
these, if I have satisfactorily proved all they 
were calculated to enable me to do, and proved 
it, too, in a way, which it will be difficult, if not 
impossible, to refute, I think I have done as 
much as could be fairly expected, and may say — 
" Est aliquod prodire tenus, si non datus ultra" 
I think I may go even farther, and say, if I have 
succeeded, as I hope I have done, iu establishing 
a truth, which has hitherto eluded the anxious 
and unwearied researches of others, that I have, 
at least, done some service to the cause of lite- 
rature. The late learned and celebrated doctor 
Pitcairne concluded one of his medical disser- 
tations, in which, after all, he proves nothing, in 
these boasting words : — Itaque ajjlrmu, me sol- 
visse nobile problema, quod est , dato morbo, invcnire 
remedium ; jamque opus exegi." Though my 



294 



problem is interesting, I cannot, like the doctor, 
call it (nobile problema) a noble one; nor am I 
disposed to boast, as he has done, though I may 
do so with more truth, and far a better grace, 
that I have given a solution of mine, in every 
respect complete. I may, however, without ex- 
posing myself to the imputation of vanity, say, 
that I have slurred over no difficulties, and that 
all my exertions, whether weak, or forcible, have 
been fairly directed, not to cut the gordian knot, 
but to untie it. 

97th June, 1813. 



.VHITT1NGHAM and ROWLAND, Printers, Goswell Street, London. 



i?S^ ^ 



*£3 






